Situation
The system repeatedly failed during startup and could not reach the normal Windows desktop. Before trying repair options that might change the disk, I wanted to verify whether the files were still accessible.
Working from WinRE
I used the Windows Recovery Environment and command-line tools to inspect the volumes, find the user data, and confirm the files that needed to be saved.
I connected an external SSD as the destination. It did not initially have a usable drive letter in the recovery environment, so I checked the storage layout and made the destination accessible before starting the copy.
Why I recovered first
I intentionally did not start with automated repair or reinstall steps. Even though this was not a formal forensic acquisition, the safest order of operations was still to get the important files off the machine before doing anything more invasive.
Result
The requested files were recovered to external storage. Once the data was safe, troubleshooting or repairing the operating system could happen separately without the same risk to the files.
Why I kept this writeup
This was ordinary technical support work, but I kept it because the reasoning matters: define the priority, avoid changing the source more than necessary, verify what you are copying, and separate recovery from repair.