Would I be able to use the same external hard drive for Windows and OSX?

I plan to get an external HD to put a lot of my multimedia files on and for backups but I don't know if I'll need an individual one for each operating system. I am going to be running a MacBook Pro with both Windows and OSX through Boot Camp.

jengwall,
No, you won't need more than a single drive. There are several options to meet your needs.
OS X can partition your external, and the formats for the various volumes can be HFS+ (the native Mac format) or FAT-32 (Windows format). While OS X cannot create NTFS volumes, and it cannot write to them, it can read them. Any FAT-32 volumes created in OS X can be converted to NTFS by Windows, if and when you like.
Windows cannot natively read HFS+ volumes, and only the FAT-32 format will be both read and write for both Windows and OS X. However, there are some third-party solutions.
"Macdrive" is a Windows utility that allows it to access HFS+ volumes as read/write. On the Mac side, there is "MacFuse," which gives OS X the ability to not just read, but write to NTFS volumes.
Scott

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