A well-written article on how to backup an entire partition using DD.
Another way to do this is to use CloneZilla.

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Source: help.ubuntu.com
Preparing for backup

Just a quick note. You are about to back up your entire system. Don’t forget to empty your Wastebasket, remove any unwanted files in your /home directory, and cleanup your desktop.

Depending on why you’re backing up, you might want to:

Delete all your emails
Clear your browser search history
Wipe your saved browser [...]

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