Going to replace hard rive

[needaclue]

Hello all!  I am new and I need help.  My home PC is a gateway - approx. 6 yrs old.  Original OS was Windows 98/SE, I upgraded to XP Home when it came out.  I also had to get a new (llarger) memory card (to make sure Xp would run) and over the years I have installed a CD burner and replaced my original CD drive.  (I am fearless in that case!)  My new problem is that there is a lot of clicking upon start up and I get the dreaded black screen with "operating system not found."  HDD is fried, I guess.  I am looking at a drive by Seagate (anyone familiar with the company and product?) with a capacity WAY larger than what I have - I think it was 250 GB.  Am I going to need to upgrade anything else in order to install and use something that big?  Should I look smaller?  Hubby does home office work, my daughter plays games and I pay the bills and do some surfing - no huge usage.
Any help for the clueless one would be greatly appreciated.  

[panboy]

If your computer is a bout 6 years old , i wont have SATA so make sure your Getting an IDE drive,

Theres a Chance your mobo wont be able to see the entire disk , and you might have to to limit the capacity , if thats the case a smaller drive would make more sense

So look up the mother board Specs on the Internet and see what size drive it can take.

just google the Model Number.

[soybean]

Yes, I agree a smaller drive probably would be a better choice, due to likely limitations of the older motherboard you're working with.  I suggest this one: Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JB 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive - OEM.  I have two of these.  You can't go wrong with it.  Over 1,000 reviews on the site and very positive overall.  And, 80Gig should be plenty for your needs.  

I'm not trying to steer you away from Seagate.  It's a fine brand.  They have a five year warranty on some of their drives.  Here's one: Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST3802110A 80GB 7200 RPM 2MB Cache IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive - OEM.  The only significance difference I see between these two drives, beside warranty, is that the WD has 8MB cache and the Seagate has 2MB cache.  The higher amount of cache gives a slight performance advantage.  Newegg.com probably sells the corresponding Seagate with 8MB cache; I just did not search for it.

[needaclue]

Thank you both, panboy and soybean:
I think I should stick around the 80GB mark - and thanks for the tip about the mobo - I wouldn't have given it a thought until I had the case open and guts strewn around the room!   :-?
I'll check out those you mentioned - if I need more help, I'll be back!
Thanks again.

[soybean]

Just thought of something.  The two links I provided were for OEM drives.  That means you only receive the drive, no retail box, no printed instructions, etc.  So, buy the Retail package of the same drive.  That way, you recieve in the full retail box, with installation instructions, software tools, etc.  There will a slight price difference, but I think it's well worth the extra cost.