Fat32 4 GB File Limitation Work Around

I have a 500GB (465.5) external usb drive which I use for file storage and downloading and photo processing as well as COPYING FILES BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN AN OLD PC WITH XP. It has been working fine but now I have a problem.

The drive is in FAT32 Format as formated on my Mac because of the need to occasionally transfer files from and to the PC. Of course the PC can't read a Mac Journaled format.

I have run into the 4GB restriction in file size on serveral occasion and although I can work around the problem it is a pain to do so and I am really wanting to get things changed and move on!

I have read there may be a way to format the drive with NTSF and still be able to read it and use it on the MAC which would truly solve my problem.

Does anyone have any information on this?

Would appreciate a response if you can help me.

Writing to NTFS on Mac OS X is basically a lost cause, instead do it the other way around and format the drive as HFS+ and run HFS Explorer (http://hem.bredband.net/catacombae/hfsx.html, free) or MacDrive (http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/, commercial, with trial) on Windows. MacDrive installs a new file-system driver and lets you use HFS/HFX+ formatted drives just like any other Windows drives, while HFS Explorer runs as a separate program that lets you use HFS/HFS+ formatted discs.