Prep for Migration from PC to Mac (Ext Drive)

I plan to purchase a Mac desktop in a few months. I need to backup my PC files (cause I never have!) and create some hard drive space on my sluggish PC. Can I do the following: 1) Use an external hard drive and back-up all files 2) Upon Mac purchase, transfer all files to Mac from PC (plug ext HD to Mac?) 3) After migration is done, reformat external drive to use with my new Mac. I'd hate to buy an external HD and not be able to use it with new Mac. Is there some 3rd party migration software that would make this process easier?

Would it be helpful to get MacDrive 7 to enable seamless sharing between the PC and Mac? If I use that software, would I not have to reformat the drive once I go 100% Mac?
I'm a bit confused. You first say that you want to go 100% Mac, but then say that you want to share the drive with a PC and a Mac. Could you elaborate a bit on exactly what it is you're hoping to accomplish? It is possible to share an external drive between a PC and a Mac without purchasing extra software; just format the drive as FAT32 (MS-DOS format through Disk Utility on the Mac; the drive may well ship that way).

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