Question about proper partitioning of new drive

[jbolted]

I have a working drive with 10.6.2 I used the lifehacker guide. That is working.

 

I bought a second drive that I wanted to put 2 partitions. On one partition a backup SL 10.6.2 in case my main installation gets hosed from future updates. On the second partition I was thinking of using it for a Windows install.

 

Now I know that I have to use a GUID partition table to get SN on it, will I be able to make 1 partition Mac OS Extended (journaled), & make the second partition "free space", and get windows to install on it?

 

Or is there another way to install both SN & windows on my backup drive?

 

Thanks for any suggestions.

[srs5694]

There are two ways to do this:

 

• Partition the disk for MBR and use Carbon Copy Cloner, SuperDuper, or some other backup/cloning utility to copy your working OS X installation to the second drive. This will enable you to use the drive as a "pure" MBR disk without GPT.
  
• Partition the disk using a GUID Partition Table (GPT), install OS X, and then create a hybrid MBR configuration so that Windows will be able to see its partition. If you use Disk Utility to set up the drive and create the to-be-Windows partition as FAT, it'll probably be a hybrid MBR disk from the start.
  

 

Hybrid MBRs are flaky and dangerous, so the first option has an advantage in that it avoids their problems. OTOH, if you use an MBR configuration, you may find it harder to install new versions of OS X in the future, should you decide to do so. Also, Disk Utility seems a bit flakier with MBR than with GPT.