external hd

i baught the mac mini about a month ago and with it i also baught a Western Digital 250gd external HD. this is the only mac in mty network but i was wondering how you can plug the HD into the mini and share it with the windows computers. the reason i want this is because all my other computers are also laptops and it makes no sense to plug the hd into them (which does work with the network) because the mac remains stationary.

thanks a lot,
hope my questions weren't to confuzing,
joshlacrosse

I have a mac mini also and I also have a Western Digital 250 hard drive which i was using with my PC before I brought my mac. When I plugged the hard drive into the mac mini, I was also to use the files (mostly pictures and music)on the mac with a problem.

Now I am trying to figure out how to share the hard drive with both systems.

It needs to be formatted as FAT32 to be used by both systems.

I actually currently have this set up, I am not home now but I could write a step by step once I get home if you can remember to remind me via a private message.

btw I would check out the networking category, there are lots of people that have asked the same question that have already had it answered.