Brand-new 2TB WD external for time machine

Hi, all, and thanks for the help in advance.
I've got a 1-month old iMac backing up currently to a 500GB external, which I am planning to replace with this new 2TB drive. It is going to connect via firewire, and I am planning to use the whole thing just for time machine.
A couple of questions:
1) I've never had a drive this big, and was planning just a single partition - are there strong reasons why I shouldn't do that?
2) This drive is "supposed" to be ready for Mac use, but I have no confidence, and all the info is pre-loaded on the drive. Once I plug it in, can I just go through the standard disk utility steps to reformat/ repartition?
3) Have others used the large MyBook drives in this fashion? I'm batting 50% currently on bringing over my 500GB drives from the PC and really need this new one to work more smoothly.

Apple sells MyBook drives at the Apple Store, so they must work, at least most of the time.
I would also look at some options from a Mac-specialist vendor, such as OWC.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/
(1) If you need the full 2TB size for the Time Machine backup volume, then it should be one big partition. If you only need about 1.5TB for Time Machine, it may be useful to have a separate partition (volume) for general storage use or as scratch space. Note: You can use the Time Machine volume for storing other files and folders.
(2) Mac-ready just means it is pre-formatted for Mac, using +Mac OS X Extended (Journaled)+. A drive that is formatted for Windows can be made Mac-ready by using the Partition tab in Disk Utility.
Once I plug it in, can I just go through the standard disk utility steps to reformat/ repartition?
Yes, with one exception - if this drive is a RAID that uses two 1TB drives.
If it is a normal single drive external drive, just go to Partition tab in Disk Utility. Reset the +Volume Scheme+ to the desired number of partitions. Click on the Options button to make sure +GUID Partition Table+ is selected. Back on the main window, name the volumes and set their format to +Mac OS X Extended (Journaled)+. Apply the change. It should take less than one minute.
If you are having issues with one of your PC-formatted drives, and you did not do all the steps noted above, you should try it again.
(3) As I mentioned, I have seen these WD MyBook drives (versions that come with Mac formatting) being sold at the Apple Store, so Apple must have tested them. For a FireWire drive, I tend to trust the Mac-oriented vendors more (OWC, LaCie, Macally, etc.). For USB 2.0 drives, just about any drive should work fine with a Mac.

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