Anticipation

[Selwyn Ward]

Apple tell me my new 17" AlBooks should be arriving next week (yes, I've got
2 en route: one for me and one for my partner).  This will be my fifth
Powerbook and in all previous incarnations, the first thing I've done is
dump the entire contents of my old PB into a partition or folder on the new
one, so I guess I will do the same with the contents of my Ti500. I should
probably know this, but can anyone remind me please of the keypress on
bootup that turns a PB into an external drive when connected to another by
Firewire?
Also, what's the best advice on whether or not to partition? I didn't
partition my Ti but recent posts have suggested that partitioning may be a
good idea.
I gather that the AlBooks don't come with a dual boot option (ie: switchable
to System 9 if need arises) but is it still possible to install System 9 on
a partition & boot from that?