iPod Restore

I just restored my iPod for the 2nd time. Each time you restore, you lose all the data stored on the iPod. This time I wanted to reformat the iPod back to Windows format. The Mac can read Windows file systems but not the other way around. When I restored my iPod to Macintosh format, I could not use it on my Windows PCs. Now, all my computers with iTunes can play/modify songs on the iPod. I had ~27GB of stuff on my iPod, now I have to put it all back again. Oh well, today is a work holiday...