External HDD to work PC/Mac data?

Haven't made the jump yet, trying to line up my ducks. OK, I'm thinking of buying a 500GB-750GB external HDD which I would like to use as a storage drive for a lot of my files (music, images, MS Word Docs, etc.) and I may wind up with having to keep one desktop PC on my home network so if I can somehow "share" a big drive between the iMac/PC, that would be great. Maybe after a year of using Windows XP on the dark side of the iMac I could actually give up on the separate PC, but for now... its not going to happen.

Are there any _reasonably_ priced external HDDs that connect via ethernet, or has anyone developed a USB hub that interfaces to a network?

The other side of this question is whether a HDD like this has to be formated for PC or Mac?

You can buy a D-Link NAS (DNS-323) for about $179. You can then load it with whatever SATA drives you wish and you're all set.

you can buy the Western Digital MyBook World Edition. It comes in 500 GB and 1 TB flavors, and has an Ethernet port for connectivity.

NAS (network attached storage) drives can be formatted either way, both computers will be able to read either format. If you think you might connect via USB from time to time, consider FAT32 so Windows can still read it. You could also format it for Mac and use Mac Drive on the PC to read it.

If you're planning on only using it via network, format it fie whichever system you plan on accessing it with the most.

You could also go buy any HDD you want and buy an Airport Extreme with your new Mac. They have USB ports for hosting a networked external HDD.

The cool thing about the DNS-323 is that it offers Raid 1 (Mirroring). I'm not a big fan of hard drives with less then a 3 year warranty too.

I own a MyBook 500gb hdd. And I can use it on my gateway and mac. I can read and write files. However a MyBook was created for that. I didn't have to reformat my computer. However if you choose to use "Time machine" for your mac. You will have to format your hard drive first. Before you start putting files on it.

Excuse me I meant "reformat my external hdd"

I have a friend who recently made the switch to an iMac extreme 24". He reformatted his Seagate FreeAgent 750GB external drive and runs Time Machine on it. He liked the FA because of the 5 year warranty, and it seemed to adapt to the Mac quite readily, although he's going to eventually get a Firewire 800 drive because he'd like to edit video on the fly.

The Free Agent Pro 750 is currently being offered for $199.00 at Circuit City. Apparently its normally $299.00 but the are offering a $100.00 rebate, maybe its instant. I'm definitely making the leap before Christmas, and I think I'll follow his lead and get the FreeAgent drive. There's no way I can cut and run, so I'll be iMac/PC for a few months at least until I get everything organized and have become 100% familiar with the Mac. And even after all is said and done... I don't know if I can just toss my little shuttle... its been a bulletproof little machine with a lot of umpfff!