How to remove the Photo Stream from the phone without losing any photos

For the PC the way I got it to redownload the photo stream is first go to Control Panel then open up iCloud control panel.

Turn Photo Stream to off and close the iCloud control panel.

Just as a precaution, rename the old Photo Stream folder just to have a backup of what was in there before. This is up to you.

Then go to C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer and rename the MediaStream folder to something like MediaStream-old.

Then go back to Control Panel, open up iCloud control panel and renable the Photo Stream.

If you chose a custom download location for Photo Stream then you have to choose it again. The photos should start coming in, but just remember it will only grab the last 1,000 photos you have taken.

Thanks.

Photostream will store the previous 30 days worth of photos automatically. That means, every photo you take on your iOS devices will be sent to Photostream, but only the last 30 days worth of photos will be available there.

If you enable 'Automatic Import' of Photostream in iPhoto (Preferences > Photostream > Automatic Import) then when you launch iPhoto, it will automatically download a copy of any photos that are in your Photostream, and automatically create an Event titled: {MMM YYYY} Photo Stream (eg. "Jul 2012 Photo Stream")

This Event will be automatically kept up to date, as long as iPhoto is open long enough to sync everything required (depends on your connection).

In effect, as long as you open iPhoto once every 30 days and leave it open long enough for your Photostream to be imported, you should never have to manually import a photo from your iOS device at all.

As for removing items from your Camera Roll on your iOS device, as long as you see that they are present in Photostream (or in iPhoto), then it is safe to delete them from your device. (There is no way around this but to do it manually as far as I know.)

Currently, Photostream does not support videos. To import videos, connect your iOS device to iPhoto and import these manually.

As a side note, in order to keep some photos on the device, you can create a smart album in iPhoto along the lines of "Photos taken within the last 30 days" or "Photos rated 4 stars or more", and configure iTunes to sync these to your device. That way, you can be sure that no matter if you clear your Camera Roll on your device, or delete certain photos, you maintain some convenience.