So my computer came in the mail, but I ordered it without an operating system because a good friend on mine sent me a free copy of windows XP professional (He got like 10 for free as a bonus at his work or something). Since I ordered the computer without an operating system is there anything I need to set up or install before I power it up? I want to make sure I'm not turning it on without an important chip or something. I noticed it came with an extra fan, a few extra interior cables (For extra hard drives or whatever) but also some chip thing inside a static safe package. I know a decent amount about computers but not so much the technical side, so help me out here.
Well Tal, I know that I did the same exact thing, cept I got mine from a techie friend. What he told me to do was boot it up with the disc in the drive (turn it on, open the drive, put it in, turn it off, turn back on). This should run it and it will start the "installation" process. I air quote that because it's actually a little more heavy duty than regular installation, but still. If this doesn't help I'm sure theres some people on here who are great with comps, or Blainerz and I have some people we can ask that we know... you know where we go so that shud make sense to you ... and no1 else!!
do exactly that turn on put in cd restart and it will auto start the installation process of windows xp
It's all good I called a friend of mine and he showed me what to do, and I had to set up the bios before I put the disc in
Wait where did u buy a comp from that didnt give u an operating system and made u set up some of the base hardware? unless u ordered it that way to save cash, thats a weird place...
You don't usually need to set up anything in the BIOS before an OS install but there are some exceptions (e.g. if you're trying to install off exotic hardware).
Sometimes you have change the boot order in the BIOS to make sure it checks the cd drive first before going to the HDD. And yes, you can buy barebones comps without OSes to save money.