I have an Acer Aspire One Mini laptop that I bought on eBay. My son thinks it’s from Australia. I want to put Windows on it but it won’t recognize any of the extensions like .exe to load files. I have tried different software programs but get an error message that says “Archive Format is not recognized”. Please help?
Archive Format Not Recognized Acer Aspire
The error message that you are getting is your operating system letting you know that it isn’t able to read or process the files that you are trying to install.
Acer Aspire One with Linpus Linux Lite
The Acer Aspire One mini laptops, also called netbooks, come in a couple different models where operating systems are concerned. Regardless of where your computer is from - if your Acer Aspire Mini model name starts with an L or ends with an A then another letter indicating the color, then it has been built stock with a version of the Linux operating system installed. The Linpus Linux Lite is a smaller operating system with a streamlined user interface and is preprogrammed with the Firefox web browser. This program is well suited for a mini computer, but might not satisfy computer users who are accustomed to a more sophisticated program.
Acer Aspire One with XP
If your Acer Aspire model name ends in an X or a B then another letter describing the color, then it is factory installed with Windows XP Home Edition - up to date with Service Pack 3. This laptop can be installed with Vista or beta versions of Windows 7 - but some features may suffer.
.EXE Files and Linux
So - assuming that your Acer is equipped with Linpus Linux Lite - the error message means that your operating system isn’t able to comprehend .exe files, since Linux doesn’t use them. If you want to install Windows - the first thing to deal with is the absence of the optical drive. Netbooks are so compact that they don’t include a disk drive so you can either use an external CD/DVD player connected through the USB or create a bootable flash drive complete with a multiboot tool - a web search will lead you to several options.
Install Windows
You might also need to change the boot order to ask the computer to boot from the USB drive, then install Windows. Be sure to delete both existing partitions on the computer to completely remove Linux and create a new FAT32 partition. When you’re finished, do a web search for the Windows XP Aspire One hardware drivers to make the hardware and software compatible. Good luck!
