Backing up an external hard drive, one half for PC (FAT32), other for MAC?

Question

Hey people, I've just bought a Lacie 1tb eternal hard drive which I would like to partition into two halves - in theory one half for the PC and the other half for the MAC, backing up all data held on the mac using Time Machine.
Is this possible?
If so, what is the best way to do it?
Would it be best to partition the PC half as FAT32 (MS DOS), and the other as MAC OS Extended (Journaled), on Disk Utility?
Many thanks for your help,
Tom

Answer 1

Yes, you can do as you describe.
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to two. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
7. Select the first partition from DU's left side list, select MS-DOS from the Format drop down menu, click on the Erase button.