Can I use an internal drive or external only?

It seems you need a very large (1TB) drive dedicated to Time Machine.
As internal storage is always cheaper, would an internal non-boot drive in the additional PCI slot work for Time Machine, specifically will it see an internal drive or only external firewire drives?
And as I've read in other posts it's not recommended to partition the drive?
Any other formatting suggestions?
Thanks!

You have four drive bays in the computer. For best speed for backup you should install the backup drive in one of your four bays if possible. If that isn't possible then you have the option to use an external FireWire drive. You also have two additional internal SATA connectors. However, you only have one extra bay, the one for the second optical drive. You can install a drive in the spare optical drive bay and connect it to the same ribbon as the optical drive unless you have one of the models that uses all SATA drives, even the optical drive.
The general requirements for a TM drive are that it be partitioned using GUID and formatted Mac OS Extended, Journaled. A TM drive should be at least twice the capacity of the drive or drives it will back up. Over time a TM backup drive will fill up at which time it is either replaced or erased.

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