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If it's formated with based partition scheme, pretty much every OS out there should be able to read it without any trouble or 3rd party drivers. The only downside is FAT-32 does not support files over 4.2GB. If that's a problem, I would suggest NTFS. This requires a additional driver to write files (NTFS works read-only on OS X only), but is supported on pretty much every platform out there as well (Windows, Linux, Android, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenSolaris, QNX, Haiku, and more.). The GUID partition scheme is much more recent then MBR based partition maps, so it is not as widely supported. Everything should support MBR.
If you're Ok with just Win Vista/7, OS X, and any recent Linux Distro, the GUID partition scheme should also work. It's worth noting that the issue with listing files you mention in the question is very strange. It sounds to me like a corrupt volume on the drive (E.g. A bad drive, or someone yanked the power in the midst of a write, and something got corrupted). I have had many external drives (15+), and never had any issues with the underlying USB system that weren't fixed by just disconnecting/reconnecting the cable.
The protocol is extremely well understood, documented and tested, and having a device implement it improperly (Particularly from a company as large as Seagate) at this point is vanishingly unlikely.
Best Answer: EDIT: I see at the Seagate site that they are offering the $19.95 Paragon HFS+ software free. See the first link below. You use a Mac formatted drive with the Paragon software. Download the HFS4WIN.exe file at the link below. Connect the drive you want to use to the Windows system. Double-click the HFS4WIN.exe file and install. When it finishes, restart.
If you have any other drives you need to use, each drive you want to use with Windows requires a new installation of the HFS4WIN.exe software. NOTE: This software only makes sense if you will just use the drive with your Windows system, since it has to be installed in Windows. If you need other options, read on.
DO NOT format any large drive volume as FAT anything ever. You need NTFS or Mac OS Extended. If you will use the drive only with your own Windows system, you can format as Mac OS Extended, but you will need to install either MacDrive or TransMac in Windows. If you will use the drive with various Windows systems, use NTFS, and install 'NTFS For Mac' (link below) in OS X. It enables write attribute for the Apple driver.
Without it, you would only be able to copy files FROM the drive in OS X. With it, you can read from or write to (copy files to) the drive in OS X.
Format matters: - FAT-32 is read-write for all OSes, but is not recommended by Microsoft for large drive volumes. FAT file systems have the problem of cluster size increasing with volume size, so it becomes quite poor in performance on large drive volumes. That's why the Windows formatting software will chop a HDD into partitions of 32 GB each when formatting FAT. exFAT suffers the same performance problem as FAT-32, except it allows use of large files (FAT-32 has 4 GB limit). 'Mac OS Extended' format is for OS X only and is the only format for Time Machine, but you can buy MacDrive or TransMac to use it with Windows. NTFS is the standard for Windows, but the Apple driver can only read from it (cannot save-copy-rename-move files on it or to it).
Install NTFS-3G in OS 10.6.8 or earlier or Paragon NTFS For Mac in OS 10.7 or later to write files to it. HSFExplorer can enable Windows to see all files on a Mac format, and thus save a file from it. The drive does not mount, so the process is similar to recovery software.
Even more details are at the last link below ('Best Answer'), but that answer was given before it was known that the installer for 'NTFS-3G' could not be used in OS 10.7, so just use Pagaron's software with Lion. Tell us some more. Upload in Progress. Upload failed.
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