Anyone who has had a website wiped out by hackers or a hosting company failure, without adequate backups knows that stinging regret.

The safe way to get a complete backup is in the backend via cPanel.  Once a week, or more frequently if you update frequently. The safest thing is to take a total backup each time you update. AND keep a couple of older ones too, just for good measure.

Here is an interesting concept: automated cPanel backups