Erase First, Then Partition?

hi
got an external drive (NTFS)
I want to use it for mac.

Do i just partition it into 2 partitions?
Or do i need to ERASE it into one Mac Journalled volume first??

Im erasing it now, it says its gonna take 12 hours. eek

Or is erasing the first step.
And then partitioning is the second step.
Two distinct processes/operations, right?

(i basically want two partitions on it, both OSX journalled. One for super super, and the other to maybe try sandbox or just storage or maybe time machine.

cheers.

 

thanks

yeah just about to cancel now......11 hours?!?! forget that.

just gonna partition then....