step-by-step help transferring mac to windows

Hello all...

I have been a mac user for many years, and have a new windows computer as well.

I am going to sell my older mac pro (4-core) 10.4.11 with tons of music production software in it, however I have a lot of personal files (emails, my book files, lots of music files etc).that I want to store for a future imac.

The issue is that I cannot open my cd drawer!! There does not seem to be a paper-clip hole to use...and whenever I press the arrow key to open it...just a little whirring sound and then nothing... also the 'eject' button is greyed out in the finder...

SO! I was hoping to get step-by-step, COMPLETE instructions on how I might be able to access my files on the mac, through my new Gateway windows 7 computer, AND MAKE A DVD/CD OF IT ALL..... I have done some looking around but I found some info using Leopard, etc....no good...

If I can get this accomplished I will feel very proud of myself as it seems like a complex deal....

Anyone can make it simple for me??? the only thing I understand is that both computers are in the default 'workgroup'-named workgroup...but that does nothing for me!

Thanks in advance for any help...

Maybe you could use an ext hdd formated FAT32...it will have limitations, though.

FAT32 (File Allocation Table)
- Natively read/write FAT32 on Windows and Mac OS X.
- Maximum file size: 4GB
- Maximum volume size: 2TB