I have tried creating a disk image both from the internal disk or from a folder. 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. 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 have an old Macbook pro from 2009 and it's survived till now, which is unbelievable.