I create an image of the whole system and store it on an External portable 1TB SSD.
To do that...download the Foxclone ISO from here...
https://foxclone.org/ and burn it to a Flash Drive.
Plug in your External SSD or HDD...create a Folder and name it...now plug in your Foxclone Flash Drive and boot to it.
Once Foxclone boots to it's Desktop...Foxclone will scan your Drive.
Select the Drive to be backed up...Partitions to backup...you select all...select Destination Drive (will be your external SSD/HDD)...Destination Partition...this opens to the Folder you want it saved to...double click the Folder to open it and click...save to file...click OK...Foxclone will start creating the image to that Folder.
User Guide is here...
https://foxclone.org/uguide.html
Here is my portable 1TB SSD with my Backups...
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You can also try Redorescue...
http://redorescue.com/ and Timeshift that I store Timeshift snapshots on another separate HDD but that's another story.
I might add...Foxclone is the best thing I've used and has never let me down but it's always best to use several image creating software just to be on the safe side.
By creating an image of your System...should anything happen...you delete something important or the worst your Drive fails...you put the image back on the same drive or a new one and nothing is lost...hope this helps.
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