Copy your entire hard drive even if windows won't boot

I can’t remember all the details, exactly, so if I’m a bit vague, and I get stuff wrong - forgive me..
I had recently decided to try Linux (mint, as it happens) after unsuccessfully trying to download and instal it, previously. A friend had been recommending it for ages. He’s much more computer literate than I am.
I installed it on a spare ssd, and it worked fine.
I swapped between win10 and Linux, as I had stuff in the windows drive, that I needed a windows set up for.. (my music stuff, and my photos..)
Anyway, I don’t know how, but one day, I managed to get stuck in a windows blue screen loop, that I couldn’t find a way out of. while I had the windows drive installed in my laptop (I was still trying to fix it) I plugged in the Linux drive. On the desktop was another drive icon.
I opened it up in Linux, and there was all my stuff, on the windows drive that I hadn’t backed up, and couldn’t otherwise get to! I was shocked, and mightily relieved!

Long story short: You can use Linux to recover your stuff in windows, too..