Help using connect hard drive with Time Machine

My iMac and the two wirelessly connect apple laptops all recognize the Western Digital MYBookWorld 500gb external hard drive. We can all write to it and retrieve files. We are using a Lynksys router to which the iMac and WD drive are connected directly while the laptops connect wirelessly.
We are trying to use it with TIME Machine, but when we try to set up time machine, the drive does not show up as an option for the back up disc.
I have read through several old discussions about not recognizing the disc at all, but this is not our problem. Anyone with ideas?

Hello Taxi Driver and welcome to Apple Discussion!
In short to use the External HD for the current backup and TimeMachine you will need to repartition it creating a partition for each. The down side at this point, is that in order to repartition the external the current data on it will be erased. When setting up the External for TimeMachine set the Partition Map Scheme to GUID Partition Table and the Format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
A couple of options:
1. Backup the current files on the External HD to one of your Mac's, then repartition it with 2 partitions, then use the 1st for TimeMachine and copy back the files to the 2nd partition.
2. Safer and easier way is to pickup a second external and set it up for TimeMachine.
http://www.apple.com/support/leopard/timemachine/

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