Any EASY, simple to use external hard drives that are PC and Mac interchangeable?

I have a new Mac Book Pro, running Mountain Lion.  I am new to Mac; my old laptop is a Dell running Windows 7.
I would like to move over ALL my pictures and files from the Dell to an external hard drive (EHD) that is also Mac-compatible.  I want all the pictures and documents SAVED and easily retrievable on the EHD, but probably don't really need *ALL* of them on the Mac.
Does anyone know of an EHD that will do this?  One that is really super easy to use and won't need "reformatted".  (I don't want to have to try to deal with that!)
I just want to put ALL my stuff from my Dell on an EHD, then move over SPECIFIC items from that EHD to my Mac. 
Any advice?  Recommendations?  THANK YOU!

Bob,
I'm sorry, my message was unclear!  No, I'm not looking to hook up two computers at one time to one EHD.
I'm just looking to be able to use one EHD, and go back and forth between it and the Mac or Dell, getting stuff off one, and putting stuff onto the other. 
I have all my old Dell files and photos already on the EHD.  I was afraid that once I formatted the EHD that those files from my Dell that were already there would somehow no longer be accessible to transfer to the Mac?  But it sounds like this isn't so?
So, to clarify: I would like to continue to have access to the files on the EHD (from the Dell).  Once I format the EHD, will those files still be accessible to me, to either leave "as is", or transfer to the Mac, now or later?
THANK YOU!

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