MacBook Pro 2009 starting in Recovery mode (after stop sign) - how to back up data?

Hello,

I have an old Macbook pro from 2009 and it's survived till now, which is unbelievable. However it's time I guess for the hard drive to show its age, and when I was using the browser the MBP froze and when I forced the restart I initially saw the stop sign and then I was taken to the recovery mode.

I haven't backed up my data since a couple of years ago and would like to try whatever I can to get the data back, but not sure what to do to minimize the chances of risking losing the data.

I have tried creating a disk image both from the internal disk or from a folder. Both operations failed with status 5.

While selecting the folder to create the image from, I could see all the folder structure when asked to select the folder, so I am thinking the data is still recoverable?

Could you please help me suggest what to do first to try save the data? I have bought a new MBP so my focus is on the data.

From this question I read I could be able to back up data using command line. Could someone walk me through how to do that?

Thank you to whoever can help!

Arya