I would firstly like to partition the drive if possible ?
It is possible in theory, but not easy in practice, and it will void the warranty on the Time Capsule if you attempt to do this. In general, you would need to open up the Time Capsule, remove the hard drive, place the hard drive in a separate enclosure or caddy, connect it directly to your Mac, and use Disk Utility to format the drive. Then, you would need to reinstall the drive back in the Time Capsule and hope that everything works.
Instead of partitioning, you might want to take a look at setting up one or more disk images on the Time Capsule using Disk Utility. This would allow you to reserve a certain amount of space for data and set up a password that users would need to type in before they could access the data inside the disk image.
I would then like to create a private network for myself with access to the time machine back ups and the partition with my films and photos in
The default setup of the Time Capsule will allow you to create a wireless network using a name and password that you want to use.
I Would then need to create a guest network for my house mates to use with access solely to the internet and none of my files. is this possible ?
Whether or not this is possible will depend on the type of modem that you will be using with the Time Capsule. The Guest Network feature can be enabled if you will be using a simple modem with the Time Capsule. Something like this, for example:
However, the Guest Network feature was not designed to work correctly with a modem/router or gateway. Something like this, which is often furnished by Internet Service Providers to their customers:
See the difference? One is a simple modem that only provides an Internet connection to an outboard router, like the Time Capsule. The other device is a modem/router or gateway, which is really two products.....a modem and a router.....in one package. The Guest Network feature was not really designed to work with this type of product, so it may or may not work if you try to use it with this type of device. Getting to work will involve trying to bend the rules.
Also, if this is not possible,would it then be possible to plug in an external hard drive to the time capsule (containing my films and old photos etc) and access these files wirelessly on my network ? but also stop my guests from accessing these files over their network
Yes, this actually might the simplest way to accomplish what you want to do. Make sure that the drive is formatted correctly for Mac in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) using Disk Utility and then use AirPort Utility to set up a password to access the drive. Only give the password to those who you want to have access to the drive.
