Will there be any problems loading the original Windows
software that came with my Gateway (new in 2001)onto a new
hard drive?

Any suggestions about making sure CMOS (or BIOS?) is set
correctly? Someone cautioned me about this several months
ago when I first got serious about changing the hard drive.

Have people found they prefer external hard drives? Are they
easier to hook up?

I have a Gateway 900c. I have been having myriad problems
with it in the last year or so. Recently, I backed up
everything, cleaned house, so to speak, reformatted the
original hard drive, and re-loaded the software I use. This
improved my computer's performance immensely. However, I am
getting some peculiar error messages upon startup and at
other times. Along with problems earlier this year, these
make me think it's time to replace the hard drive. Even if
the hard drive is not the cause, I think I've got my money's
worth out of the current one. Plus I have the time to learn
more. This is a project. I have bookmarked a number of sites
on the subject of changing out the hard drive.

I use only about 5 Gbyte of my current, 20 Gbyte hard drive.
I figure I'll be happy with an 80 Gbyte drive. Target has a
Western Digital one for $70. Wal-mart has a Seagate one for
$70, also. IIRC, other than Gbytes of space, brand name, and
a few possible peculiarities for fitting it into one's
computer case, is there anything else to watch for?

The Seagate's specs: http://tinyurl.com/8y367 (2 Mb buffer)

The Western Digital's specs: The only things that leap out
at me are that is has an 8 Mb buffer and is in the "EIDE
family of hard drives."

Should I be concerned about the buffer sizes?

Thanks for your patience in helping with my education. I
will be googling as well. I inquired about this earlier this
year and am reviewing the discussion from back then as well.