iPod Mac/Win compatability

[JesterJJZ]

Hi, new to this forum. I have a first Gen 10 gig iPod. I'm considering getting the new 40gig. I'm just wondering how the newer ipods mesh between windows and osx. A friend of mine had a 3g ipod formatted for windows but for the heck of it i plugged it into my mac and it showed up in itunes and i was able to add music to it and edit playlists. Will this work in reverse? Can I format my new ipod for use on mac and then be able to add stuff to it on a windows machine with itunes? It doesn't work with the 1st gen ipod. I just get an error message saying that an ipod has been detected but it is not formatted properly. If it doesn't work this way, wouldnt it make sense to format ipods for use with windows if possible? I mean if it will work on both platforms with no problems why not right? Thanks.

-Jarek

 

[jxyama]

PC formatted iPod will work on a Mac.
Mac formatted iPod will not work on a PC. (there are external remedies to this.)

you can reformat a Mac formatted iPod so it will work straight up on a PC, but you need to reformat the disk, losing all the information on the disk.

yes, it makes sense to format for PC. no, there are no negative side effects.