External Hard Drive

[rickomatic]

I am a complete newbie to tablets and the Android OS.
I've pre ordered a TFPrime and am wondering about what I will, and won't be able to do with it.
I plan on using it for both work and play. I have a Passport external HD that I've saved most of my pictures, documents etc. on.
If I plug it into the USB on the keyboard dock, will the TF/Android OS recognize the stuff I have on there, even though they were created on MS XP? These are things like .jpeg, PDF. Excel, and other MS documents.
Will I need some kind of translation or conversion app to use these?
Also, will I be able to use the external HD as a mass storage device for the TF?
Thanks in advance for giving a newbie a hand.

 

[Rastor]

The Transformer should be able to read an external USB drive, if it's format FAT or NTFS.

It includes Polaris Office which can read MS documents, though some people prefer to buy another tablet office program such as QuickOffice.