BigLBA Support

I need a SOLID answer to this, since I've gotten mixed answers from everywhere else on the intarweb.

I have a 250GB hard drive as a slave.  I'm running Windows XP Pro, no service packs applied.  It is pirated.  I've tried and tried, but can't overcome the 48-bit LBA barrier, meaning I'm only getting ~130GB out of this drive.  Dissapointing.  I've tried various BigLBA patches and such, to no avail.  I've heard SP2 fixes this, but have been unable to upgrade to it for various stupid reasons.

Would downloading a slipstreamed SP2 copy of WinXP and doing a fresh install with it fix my problem?  If not, please instruct otherwise.  I really can't afford to be wasting that other ~100GB.

Yes. Actually, SP1 fixed it, but SP2 is fine too.

>>1
Yes, you can. Note that you also need your BIOS to support it, hope it does, and if it doesn't, check your motherboard vendor for flash upgrades.

Hmm, I have some crapass tiny motherboard that came with my Compaq.  I'm worried that it might be the problem since the LBA patches I tried didn't work...at the time I thought it was defective patches, but I hadn't thought of BIOS support.

So how can I find out who manufactured my mobo if this is indeed the problem?