Is the a limit to the size of hard drive xp with no service packs can handle?

Solution 1:

XP should handle up to 2 TB per volume after the service packs are applied.

You are correct. There was a 137gb limit on the orginal pre service pack windows xp. This was addressed/fixed in SP1.

http://forums.techguy.org/windows-nt-2000-xp/585988-xp-boot-hard-disk-limits.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP

You can try the slipstream method to install sp2/sp3 with your orginal install.

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_slipstream.asp

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/System-Tweak/Autostreamer.shtml

Solution 2:

and while you're at it, integrate the controller drivers (i suppose this 1.5 TB drive is a SATA drive and windows xp does not have native support for SATA controllers) into the installation disk, unless you want to manually install these drivers during Windows Setup via F6, which requires a floppy drive.