Heed the backup data warning.
But if you just want to test mint to see how it feels, you can boot from a USB and install mint on a second usb. That way you are less prone to lose any data should something happen.
Make sure that the second USB is somewhat recent and has minimum 32 Gb for an optimal experience.
It’s not that far fetched, Google used to have somehow the same philosophy as current IBM-RedHat.