Mac & Windows Disorder

Hi everyone, please bear with me. Got few questions that boggling me till now.

Question 1:
I have PC desktop running on windows, and a MBP OSX Leopard Snow. I want to link both of them together. However, I know I can't transfer (e.g., read/write/delete) files on either computer because of the HDD format type. How do I link both computers such that I could perform all types of functions (read/write/delete files) with either computer?

Question 2:
Next, I have an external HDD which could be used as Backup Drive for my Mac. However, my MBP doesn't write onto the drive as it's Fat32 partition. Should I format it as Mac partition? If so, my windows PC can't read it right?

Question 3:
I am a Windows user all my life. Most of the files are stored in Documents folder. If I want to do a clean format on my MBP, where do I backup these documents from? Application Folder?

Question 4:
When I delete an application from MBP, i know it will be to delete that app folder from Application. Is there any residual files/folder left in other places? If so, how do i know which one?

Thank you guys for your help!!
wannabemac...

1. Networking the Mac and Windows together will allow access to either one from each machine as read and write. The network protocol takes care of file compatibility. How to network a Mac and PC together.

2. Mac OS X can read and write natively to FAT-32 the same as Windows. However, in order to use a Mac backup program such as Time Machine the drive must be formatted to the Mac OS Journaled File System. My advice is to have two separate hard drives and dedicate one exclusively to Time Machine.

3. Mac OS X is not Windows. It's almost never needed to do a clean format. If on a rare occasion one is needed, that's what Time Machine is for.

4. Most Mac applications can be deleted by dragging them to the Trash, however, more and more applications are now including an uninstaller. If the app has an uninstaller, use it. As far as residual files such as the property list files (similar to the Windows *.ini files) they can be deleted by using Spotlight (search engine) or a third party application which will find them for you. AppDelete is one such application. There are others.

Please read our Sticky Notice about switching.

Thank you very much chscag! It's really helpful and I am going to use your methods. Million thanks!

How to keep SMB shares, 'alive' once connected

Current situation -

Win 7 Pro system on a domain with a Fully shared network drive.
All PC's can connect read/write etc...

Mac's can connect via SMB://sharename then i map that drive to the desktop for ease of access for the user(s).

The Problem: All of the Mac's after a givin amount of time (an hour a day, while either left on or taken home then brought back to the office...) the share will no longer connect, try deleting the mapped drive and then reconnecting, and the Mac won't even acknowledge that the share exists!

Any help would be great, I've got ten mac users that are really frustrated