Formatting my new external HD

Hey guys,
I just received my OWC Mercury Elite Pro 500 GB and I need to format it. I'm not really good with the technical stuff on a computer so, please be easy on me.
1) I got the external HD because, I want to move my music, photos, and docs off my computers (both Mac and PC). I'm doing so that I can sell/"get rid" of my computers and get new ones.
2)I want to be able to use my HD on both Macs and PC interchangeably.
3) I'm in the US right now but, I go to school in the UK. My Mac is back in the UK, I'm on my PC/laptop right now.
I know that if I format by HD to FAT32 I can use the HD on both Macs and PCs interchangeably, but the downside with FAT32 is that there is only a 4GB per file limit - Is my info correct? - As a result of some searching, I've come to the conclusion that I would be better off to partition. My questions are:
a)I'm assuming that I can format the partitions with different formats, NFTS for PC (Is this the best format for PC?), but what format do I use for my Mac partition?
b)I was told it's better to format the HD on my Mac, since I don't have my Mac with me (see above), is this true? if not, how do I format the HD on my PC?
I know this is a mac forum, but any help with PC would be greatly appreciated!
Sorry, for the long post.
Thanks!

I haven't tried opening a file on an NTFS volume.
Just so we're on the same page, you're saying that I can copy a file, ex.pic, docs, and music, saved on a NFTS on to my Mac and work on it?
Yes.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304940
"NTFS is a read-only disk format for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. As a workaround you can copy the data from the NTFS volume to an HFS+ volume"
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75320
"Mac OS X 10.3 and 10.4 work with local NTFS-formatted volumes. The volume will be read-only."
Also, see this -> http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050521110452194&lsrc=osxh

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