moving a mac formatted ipod to pc help please

If your iPod is formatted for Mac it won't run natively on a PC because Windows operating systems don't recognize Mac OS-formatted disks (HFS or HFS Plus formats). There are third party programs that will allow you to use a Mac formatted iPod on Windows. XPlay for instance gets good reviews and has the added functionality to let you copy your songs back to iTunes. Once you have your songs saved to the PC you can go ahead and restore the iPod for Windows. You can get XPlay at this link: XPlay 2

XPlay is currently only compatible with Windows XP, 2000, Me or 98SE, a new version for Vista is planned for release later this year.

*so then can a mac using itunes manage a pc formatted ipod?*

Macs can read Windows drives so you should have no trouble using your iPod on the Mac. One proviso is that Apple currently only fully supports using the iPod shuffle in FAT32 format on Mac, in other words all future software updates for the iPod would have to be carried out in Windows to maintain the formatting.

*So using xplay, I download the app, and install and run xplay and it moves the music directly to itunes for windows/ or are you exporting the files (or library) from the ipod to the hard drive and then importing into itunes for mac?*

XPlay is a Windows program you'd be moving the tracks from the iPod to the PC for use in iTunes for Windows. The XPlay help pages will explain exactly how transferring songs works.

The best FREE software to do what you want is called Senuti!
FREE!
It will do songs and videos too.

Senuti is a Mac only program. The OP had two issues, one was connecting a Mac formatted iPod to Windows and the other was moving the music onto the PC. Senuti is not applicable in either case. It can't be used to connect a Mac formatted iPod to Windows and it only works in OS X to transfer content from the iPod to the computer.

This actually relates to an issue I'm having...I just purchased a 2G Nano from a friend (He just bought a 3G and doesn't need his 2G anymore) who has it formatted for PC. I connect it to my Mac, and it gives me a "Transfer Music?" question. If I tell it yes, it says it can't transfer the music because my computer won't authorize it, if I say no, it tells me it's going to clear the iPod and resync it (which is what I WANT it to do), and then proceeds to freeze up. I've tried several times, and all iTunes ever does is cease responding. I'm guessing it's due to the fact that I have the most recent iTunes update. Any ideas?