How can I partition the remaining space on an external hard drive for use in Time Machine?

I backed up files from my old macbook to this external drive.  I want to use all remaing space for time machine on my new Air that runs OSX Lion.  Please help

It is usually recommended that your keep a clone of your HD and your Time Machine backup on different drives.
You don't want your backup drive to fail and lose both your clone and your TM backup.
The answer to your question is to use Disk Utility to partition your drive. Again, you should have a backup of your drive before you partition it.
Launch Disk Utility, select your external drive > Partition > Resize the partition by sliding the tab at the lower right corner of the image > Create a new partition with the space that has been freed up.

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    Triple-click anywhere in the line below to select it:
    tmutil compare -E
    Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
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