[richardparish]

I don't yet own a Mac, and I'm completely in the dark as to what to expect. I could probably get an answer on Google, but I'm hoping that someone will have the patience to save me hours of reading...

I currently have a Windows XP desktop and Laptop, and a wireless router.
The XP laptop is a work machine, and will have to stay. I'm looking to gradually switch over to using a Mac for everything else.

Initially, I want to get a Mac Mini, connect it to a TV, and wirelessly to my existing Windows PC/ wireless network to stream audio and video (all my music & video is non-DRM, iPod compatible MP3's or MP4's). I have about 500Gb of music and video on the XP machine that I want to be able to access, which obviously won't fit on a Mini.

As part of this purchase, I might get some NAS hard drives, to connect directly to the router, so that I can use the Mac with the XP machine switched off, but I'll still want to access the media from the XP machine.

My eventual aim is to get a proper Mac, as a replacement to my main XP desktop (depending how I like the Mini). I will always have an XP laptop that needs to connect to the internet, if not to the files on the main desktop (be it Mac or XP).

So my question is: With the Mac using a different file system, will it be able to connect to my music and video collection on an XP drive? Also, if I switch to using NAS devices, connected directly to the router, will I be able to access the files from both XP and Mac machines?

I don't need detailed how-to instruction, just an idea if it's possible, or if I need to budget for additional hardware/ software to be able to do it.

Thanks, in advance for your help and patience.

[ghporter]

Most NAS devices come preformatted-usually with the FAT32 file system which both PCs and Macs can use quite well. There are a few issues with FAT32, such as an absolute file size limit of 4GB(ish), but unless you're doing heavy duty video editing using the NAS as storage, it's no big deal.

I'm currently using a CoolMax CN550 NAS box with a 300GB drive in it. The CoolMax built in functions formatted the drive for FAT32. My Macs and PCs see and use it seamlessly. In other words, it's not only possible, it's a good solution.