Time Machine running on Leopard killed a partitioned external HD.  Is there a fix?

I partitioned the 3 TB external hard drive into four partitions to use with Leopard's Time Machine.  The partition I was using for Time Machine was 300 GB.  Time Machine required 55 GB for the backup.  When almost finished I received the following error:
Time Machine Error
Unable to complete backup.  The backup volume may have been ejected or disconnected from your computer.
After receiving the error the drive is not recognized by the computer.
Please help.

Hi BDAqua,
Returned the drive & got a new one.  It is working without partitioning.
Best Buy said that Leopard won't support a partitioned external hard drive, the answer is to upgrade to Snow Leopard at a cost of $19.99.  This works for me.
Thanks for you help!

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