Finder unresponsive when external hdd is plugged in

Hi everyone,
im new to the forum, but I was looking for a solution to my problem and came here, and it seems like everyone is pretty helpful.
so anyway, my problem is that every time I plug in my external harddrive (seagate free agent goflex 2tb using the optional firewire dock (it also does the same thing when using the usb dock)) the computer recognizes the drive, and when i'm lucky, I can open up the window and view some of the files in one folder, but if i go back and try to look at another folder, it doesnt show anything, and then finder will go unresponsive all together, and when i click relaunch, it will close finder, but won't open it up again until I unplug the drive. I tried the drive on other computers, and everything is fine, no corrupted files, no problems that i could find whatsoever. Also, this computer works fine with a different firewire drive. I have no idea at all what is happening with this drive or what i can do to fix it. I bought the drive a few months ago, and it worked fine until just recently (a day or so ago).
so far i have tried restarting several times, and also booting off of a different drive (that was a mirror of my internal harddrive that was made about 3 months ago (back when there were no problems with the drive), however the same thing happened
The computer is a 13" mid 2010 model 2.66ghz macbook pro.
Thanks in advance for any help that anyone can offer. if any more info is needed to diagnose the problem, please dont hesitate to ask , i will do my best to provide all the info that you need
Thanks again

First trouble shooting steps:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379 - Reset PRAM
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964 - Reset SMC
Two formats you want your drives:
Mac OS X (journaled) or MS-DOS FAT 16
Honestly I have seen a lot of issues with iOmega drives, check to see if there is a firmware update for your external drive if the trouble persists. Stay current with software update.

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