WinXP without SP2 (boot hangs)

In the last article I have explained how I have build a PC from hardward pieces (for the use of an extra PC @home).
Now I explain the multiple attempts I have made to put it working with WinXP. Was a real challenge to have a reasonable hard-drive working (160 Gb).

Firstly I have installed XP in an hold drive with just about 3 Gb. It worked smoothly, as expected. Then I tried to install SP2 but it failed due to lack of space. I have learn in the hard way the SP2 is a real upgrade, not just a quick fix & install -- it requires a lot of extra space in the same hard disk partition.

Then I bought a 160 Gb IDE disk, removed the old 3 Gb disk. Installed XP. Smooth so far. After the first reboot: "hal.dll not found" bla bla. "Just a messy install" -- I thought. I was being too naive by choosing 127 000 Mb (the maximum WinXP without SP2 would allow me to partition).

Call me stupid... but I was only able to recover the situation by creating a small partition (around 20 Gb) with all Windows installed. Master-disk, first partition. Then I was able to upgrade to XP SP2.