read backup HD w/ MAC OS

[tape]

MANY MANY years ago, I used Virtual PC on my 2nd generation iMac (had certain apps that were only available for PC). Got an external box for 2nd HD. Formated as MacOS, unreadable by Virtual PC. Format as PC (using the iMac), still unradable by Virtual PC. Format as PC by Virtual PC, unreadable by MacOS. This was back with Win98 and OS9. Moved to PC exclusively about 6-8 years ago, but now going back to Mac. I've got tons of picture, music & video data backed up on numerous HDs that I connect to my PC via USB, when updating backups, etc. So my question: With the current MacOS and newer PC emulating packages for Mac, will I be able to read those HDs in order to transfer the data to my Mac?
Other question: what's the best way to run a PC app on an iMac?
Thanks

[Force Flow]

If your external drives are formatted as FAT32, yes, you will be able to read and write to the drive with the mac. If formatted with NTFS, you will only be able to read (although I recall hearing of the 3rd party app that would allow you to write, but it was experimental at the time)

To get windows apps to run on a mac, you can either multiboot with bootcamp, or look a parallels desktop, which is basically a virtual machine on the mac: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallels_Desktop_for_Mac

[tape]

Force Flow,
Thanks for the info.