Networking O.S?

Ok i have a windows but im soon to buy a new Imac, but on my windows i have extremely important music files and softwares (i record music etc) is there a way i can get both computer operating systems to communicate to each other ?

I currently have 10k audio files on an external drive formatted for XP but i need the files to work for Imac also? Any one know what to do ?

The Mac will be able to read the external drive, as Macs can read both NTFS and FAT-32, but if the drive is NTFS formatted, the Mac will not be able to write to it. To be able to write to the drive you will need to format it as FAT-32. Note that WinXP can not format drives larger than 4Gb to FAT-32, but can read larger drives that have been formatted by other programs. In other words, to get the drive to FAT-32, you will need to use a 3rd party App, not WinXP.

You can connect the 2 computers via a network, either wired or wireless. I suggest doing a search here in the forums, as this has been covered MANY times already.

Right well my hard drive is 80 gig...so that means its NTFS?

Which actually might be handy cos if im getting a new Imac..there wont be any thing on my Imac that i will want to write to the external hard drive !
And i will do a search for the network thing. Thankyou.

If you used WinXP to format it, then it is likely NTFS.

While there will initially be nothing on the iMac to copy to the drive, there will be eventually.