Time Machine and external HD in one?

Question

I have a 2 TB Western Digital external hard drive, which I use for Time Machine backups. I have been considering buying an extra (they are on sale next week where I live) to use for stuff that takes up space on my Mac (like photos, videos etc.), but before I do so, I would like to know if I can partition or do something with the HD I already have, to use 1 TB for Time Machine and another TB for whatever I like to put in there. Is this possible, and if it is not, do I have any other choice than to buy an extra HD?
Cheers

Answer 1

This is from the disk utility help ...
Partition a non-startup disk
If you want to partition a disk that you won’t use to start up your Mac, follow these steps.
Partitioning a disk erases all the files on the disk. Be sure to copy any files you want to keep to another disk before you partition the disk.
If you’re partitioning an external disk, make sure it’s connected to your computer.
Open Disk Utility, in the Utilities folder in Launchpad.Open Disk Utility
Select the disk that you want to partition and click Partition.
Choose the number of partitions from the Volume Scheme pop-up menu.If you can’t choose the number of partitions, follow the steps for partitioning a startup disk.
Click each partition and type a name for it, choose a format, and type a size. You can also drag the divider between the partitions to change their sizes. If a partition’s name has an asterisk beside it, it’s shown larger than its actual size in order to display its name clearly.
Click Options and choose one of the following:
If you’ll be using the disk on a Windows computer, choose the Master Boot Record partition scheme (also known as “fdisk”).
If you’ll be using the disk only with Mac computers, choose GUID Partition Table.
Click Apply.
Note that all files on the disk will be erased when the partitions are created. If you want to try to keep your existing files, you can try this...
Create new partitions on a disk
You may be able to create new partitions on a disk without losing any of the files on the disk. Each partition works like a separate disk. You may need to create a new partition if you want to install multiple operating systems on your computer. You can also create partitions to help organize your files.
As a precaution, back up your data before creating new partitions on your disk
Open Disk Utility, in the Utilities folder in Launchpad.Open Disk Utility
Select the disk where you want to create a new partition and click Partition.
Select an existing partition in the Volume Scheme list, and click Add (+).Disk Utility splits the partition into two, leaving the data from that partition in one of the new partitions. If the partition is less than half-full, Disk Utility creates two partitions of equal size. Otherwise, it creates one partition large enough for the data, and another partition with the remaining space.
Resize the partitions as needed.You can drag the dividers between the partitions in the Volume Scheme list, or you can select a partition in the Volume Scheme list, and then enter a value in the Size field.
Choose how to format the partitions that will be erased or created.For each new partition, select it, enter a name, and then choose a format.
Click Apply.