Stuck on white screen with 5 pink vertical bars and apple logo

Hi all,  mid 2011 I bought my first IMAC which operated great until a couple of hours ago.
All of a sudden the screen started to flicker
I tried pushing the on/off button which did not help.
Then I pulled the plug out of the socket.
Put the computer back on.
I got a white screen with 5 pink bars and apple logo.
Then a white screen.
Nothing more.
Started the computers several times but no luck.
So, I called the shop where I bought it and just went there. Only thing they can do is send for repairments and reset the whole system.
And since my computerknowledge goes only so far I do not have a back up...And they can not get my files from the computer.
Therefore i was advised to go an Apple store, which I did. But I was told they also cannot help me with getting backups.
So my question is : how do i get an backup from this iMAC if I cannot get past a white screen with 5 pink bars?
And furthermore, how could this is happen?
Anyone any advice and ideas regarding this matter?
Thanks very much!

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
This is not a good sign, because the GPU is damaged. Unfortunately, you can't do anything to recover your data, but here's the good part: the GPU isn't soldered to the logic board in your Mac, so only the GPU will be replacing and you won't lose anything more.
You can take it without a backup before the hard drive won't be modified. However, when you get your computer after being repaired, buy an external drive and start making backups using Time Machine or a clone app like Carbon Copy Cloner. All hard drives fail and you don't know when your hard drive will fail, so it's better to make backup of your files

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