Time Machine and a partitioned external drive

Ok noob question here.

Right now I'm using a seperate external drive for Time Machine and a seperate one for data storage. I'd like to consolidate everything to one drive.

Can I partition one drive so that I can use a portion of it for Time Machine to back up to AND use the other partition to store my other data such as mp3's, documents, pics, etc. ?

The short answer is yes. Just make sure the partition you set aside for Time Machine is formatted to HFS+ and that it's large enough to store the backups over time.

Regards.

Yep, just partition it how you want. I do the same thing with my 1TB drive. Works great.

Thx for the replies. I've got a 300GB external drive so how much should I allow for Time Machine's backup? If I allow 100GB for Time Machine on one partition, will that be enuff?
The drive I use right now for Time Machine is a 50Gb and have only used very little space (1gb).