When the Missing Manual says it is not necessary to partition a drive these days, they are absolutely correct as far as DATA goes. In fact it is preferable not to partition the drive for many reasons. However, if you are going to have multiple boot images they either must be on separate volumes (partitions) or drives. A good reliable external HD with 1 TB (that is TeraByte) of storage can be had for $100 plus shipping and handling from
OWC if you have a USB 3 port. Firewire runs the cost up another $20 or $30.
