dep composed on 2024-09-03 11:20 (UTC-0400):
As I understand it, due to UEFI being necessary for a drive of this size,
It's not UEFI that requires it. It's too big for the old partition table scheme developed last century. The new scheme is called GPT, for GUID Partition Table.
there are some necessary partitioning tricks. It might be that the Debian install handles this without any intervention on my part. Or it could be that I'll need to set it up ahead of time.
Most Linux installers, including that of Debian, are capable of doing all partitioning required, usually proposing a scheme suitable for use with the disk space provided, but allowing alterations to that scheme, or letting you create your own. They will also allow you do simply specify which partitions you may have already created in advance to use for what purpose.
So my question was and is: what partitions will I need,
Need is quite simple: one for FAT32 formatted ESP, another for everything else formatted in a Linux native format, such as EXT4.
Desire may include a partition for swap, and one or more for user data, such as one for mounting to /home/, which is where each user account is situated.
must they come in any particular order and/or format, and if so, what should that be? This is before I get to partitioning the drive for the usual things.
What would be "the usual things"? Order on GPT doesn't matter, but the convention is ESP first, then everything else.