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This is a re-edit, because no one seems to want to answer the actual question.

To simplify: Will a non-root backup save everything? Do I have to log in as root to copy sbin, home, etc to a backup disk?

Thanks for all the answers on logging in as root, but that wasn't the problem.

Zanna
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John Williams
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    "but I can't seem to log in as "root" to do this." Use your admin account and sudo. Using a "root" on Linux is a small security risk and does not correctly log usage of the person doing something on your system. With sudo all account actions are registered to your admin account, – Rinzwind Mar 22 '18 at 15:05
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    See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BackupYourSystem – Panther Mar 22 '18 at 15:06
  • Thanks, but, again, it doesn't address the problem: Can I back up everything useful just as an ordinary user? Do I have to log in as admin or root? – John Williams Mar 22 '18 at 20:18
  • What do you mean by "everything"? What do you mean by "backup"? – Organic Marble Mar 22 '18 at 20:34
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  • A complete backup can be achieved by cloning the whole drive. You do that with Clonezilla, booted from a CD disk or USB pendrive, and either create a cloned copy on a third drive of at least the same size as the original one, or better: create a Clonezilla image, which is a directory containing several files where the big ones are compressed; 2. You can run backup systems, that backup all your personal files more or less automatically with or without root permissions (like suggested by @Panther).
    • – sudodus Mar 22 '18 at 20:51
  • @sudodus Make that a proper answer instead of a comment – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy Mar 23 '18 at 00:27
  • @SergiyKolodyazhnyy, Done :-) – sudodus Mar 23 '18 at 07:06