whats a good external harddrive that is compatible with both mac and pc?

also one that doesnt require/recommend being on or connected to the pc majority of the time.
i heard that some external harddrives has a chance of crashing if you turn it off and on too many times.. is this even true?
thanks

External drive are identical to internal ones. They are just in pretty boxes, and attach with a cable. Really! They are the same drives as internal ones. So the off/on cycle is a factor, but a tiny one. None of them "require" being attached. Well only when you are going to transfer data. I have 2 that are always attached, and 2 that I use as backup that I attach only when I do the back up. Its up to you really how to operate it. However they do like to be spun up every now and them, say once a month. Believe it or not, it is the lubricant that needs the exercise.

In short just get any of them, and use it however you want.

What matters most in regards to PC vs mac is how the drive is formatted.
PC's can read and write NTFS and FAT32.
Macs can read NTFS, FAT32 and some other one that I don't know the name of, but they can't write to NTFS.
I think most drives come in NTFS.

You'll probably want to double check these, as I'm at work and they're all off the top of my head. Thus probably wrong.

You can change the formatting before you put anything on it.

i got a seagate free agent
what format should i format it too?
if i tend to use a mac and a pc?
mainly a mac tho