Format external HDD for Macbook & Laptop

Apologies if this is not the best community for this query. Wasn't quite sure where to put this one.
I have a Western Digital Elements SE 1TB external HDD which I have been using to manually back-up files (mainly music, photos and documents) from a Dell Studio laptop running Windows Vista.
I now have a MacBook Pro and I would like to continue using my external HDD to back-up files from this too.
Can anyone tell me if there is a way to format my external HDD so that I can back-up files from both and also transfer files between the two?
If so, are there any risks associated with this?
Many thanks.

sure no problem asking questions, thats the whole point of a forum.
NTFS is older Microsoft file system (I still use it for Windows 7 so it's not OLD old) it's built for Windows specific security and therefore not mac friendly out of the box. There are 3rd party NTFS readers/writers, but unless are networking to a Windows host you don't get any advantage to NTFS on Mac. My Windows PC and Mac(s) will transfer files to one another from NTFS (on Windows) to Journaled (on Mac) and from Journaled to NTFS without incident as long as I have credentials to log into either machine from the other. On a network it doesn't matter what format I use (no special software needed), but connected directly to a computer those formats suddenly will (NTFS reader/writer software needed for Mac or Journaled reader/writer software for PC).
FAT32 is from back-in-the-DOS-day (File Allocation Table 32 bit) that has a few restrictions:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/314463
Use FAT32 for flash drives and you will be Mac/Win/Unix cross compatible (all restrictions still apply) but I would not day-to-day use it on my "OS" drive.
If you're going to use the system on Macs and exclusively macs I would go with Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If you need to share with Windows later (connect the drive with a USB cable to your Windows box) there are 3rd party packages to allow you to read Journaled drives but for the cost it would possibly make sense buying the adapter for the network and turning it into a NAS or hosting on the Mac and let the PC log into the mac.

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