Which format for my external HDD and usb pen drives & networking question

[DAMAC3]

I have purchased a MBA (love it!), and I am about to sell my Windows desktop. I will be duel-booting OS X and Win 7 on my MBA, and I might add a Mac mini or a self-built Windows box to my network down the road (mostly to serve video and other files). I am getting an Airport Extreme to add to my current wireless G router/DSL modem. The AE will serve as my wireless N access point (N for the MBA, G from the other wifi router for my iPhone), and I will use it to connect my printer and an external 1TB drive. I can't decide whether to built a cheap Windows box to be my file server (and to perform random tasks when the MBA is with me) or to buy some NAS system to serve my files.

My other question is what format do I use for my external drive and a couple of pen drives I use as backup for my documents and pictures. They are currently formatted NTFS, and I realize I cannot modify them from OS X. But Mac formatting isn't visible in Windows without an added program, right? I often have files above the size limit for Fat32. So which format do I chose? One of the pen drives is used for school where I transfer Visual Studio programming files; another is a photo/document backup that I keep in a fireproof safe. Will I just need to keep one pen drive only for my programming classes formatted to NTFS? What do other people do?

 

[runplaysleeprun]

I hear MacDrive works pretty well, but I haven't personally tried it. It allows you to view HFS+ drives on windows.

http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/

 

[JustGretchen]

Might want to look into a TimeCapsule, it is a sort of NAS and will serve your needs nicely.

As for your other issue. You can use NTFS3G for the Mac to write NTFS drives. I've used it and it seems to work pretty nicely.

Otherwise, use MacDrive in Windows, though I don't know if it will work w/ Win7....

Out of curiosity, what are the reasons you feel that you need to run windows?

 

[DAMAC3]

Might want to look into a TimeCapsule, it is a sort of NAS and will serve your needs nicely.

As for your other issue. You can use NTFS3G for the Mac to write NTFS drives. I've used it and it seems to work pretty nicely.

Otherwise, use MacDrive in Windows, though I don't know if it will work w/ Win7....

Out of curiosity, what are the reasons you feel that you need to run windows?

Have to have Windows for Visual Studio. I am taking programming classes, and Visual Studio is what we use in class. The machines we use in class are always going to be Windows machines, so I need a pen drive that is formatted to read and write easily on those machines. Also, I am in a transition phase as far as my computer use goes. I just started down the Mac path, and I guess I am not quite ready to drop Windows fully. I still have a lot of Windows software.

Thanks for the TimeCapsule suggestion. I will probably go with some type of RAID array (or a DROBO) for redundency, though.