External hard drive file backup: Mac and PC?

[psymac]

Wondering how to go about setting up an external HD to archive files for both Mac and PC. I have a Maxtor Onetouch plus 4, 500gb (price $130).

I have two Mac Minis (Leopard), an Ibook G4 (Tiger), and two PCs (XP). Not sure how to go about formatting, should I use FAT32 and then just do a manual archiving of files for all these computers, or setup partitions and then (I hope) use some backup software? Is this the best drive for this purpose?

 

[richard.mac]

Mac OS X and Windows can read/write to FAT32 but there is a 4GB file limit per write. Windows can read HFS+ if MacDrive is installed & Mac OS X can read NTFS if Mac Fuse of NTFS for Mac OS X is installed.

if your not dealing with big files over 4GB then i would recommend formatting to FAT32. otherwise your can format to HFS+ or NTFS. though i would recommend formatting to HFS+ as you have more macs. you could also make a HFS+ partition and NTFS partition within disk util. make the first HFS+ and the second MS-DOS (FAT) then format the second to NTFS in Windows.

 

[ethernet76]

I would do a partition for Windows and one for Mac.