Installing OS X Yosemite on other than main drive

I have a 2009 MacBook Pro with Snow Leopard (old fashioned, I know) and am happy with it- but tax software requires upgrade, so am installing OS X Yosemite.  Got recommendation to install on drive other than my main drive in case I want to stick with Snow Leopard- but don't know how to do that. My husband and I have separate 'accounts' on the Mac- so would installing Yosemite on one mean it wouldn't be on the other? If we end up liking yosemite, do we have to download another copy for the other account?  Also, what is the danger of installing OS X without backing up the computer first?

Sorry if these are obvious questions- but I'm having trouble understanding how an operating system could work on an external drive, as we usually just store files there and I assumed the laptop's operating system "took over" when you opened files from an external drive. Thanks for the help
You can install OS X on an external drive and then boot from the external drive. At that point you could unmount the internal drive as computer won't be running off of it.
One of the most popular backup methods is to clone your internal drive to an external drive. That way you not only have a backup of all of your files, but a backup of your entire system that you can boot from in emergency, i.e., your internal drive fails.
Example, your internal drive fails and all that you have is a TimeMachine backup on an external drive. You won't be able to use your computer until you replace the internal drive, because you can't boot up from TimeMachine backup.
Next example, your internal drive fails an you have a cloned backup on an external drive. You can use your computer by booting off of the external. And, when you replace the internal, you can use the cloned external to re-clone the internal.

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