Export/Import problem from 1&1.com

I have a very limited blog set up using the 1and1.com hosting service. I made the mistake a few years ago of using the 1&1 Blog onsite tool to create and maintain my blog. It “says” it is powered by WordPress, but as set up it cannot make use of the features and functionality of the “real” WordPress.

So today I managed to create a new subdomain to transfer over my blog. I followed instructions to set up WordPress with 1and1 hosting and verified the new blog at the new address, etc. and even got the confirmation e-mail from WordPress that my blog has been successfully created.

I have a number of posts to the old blog that I wanted to port over to the new one. I followed the instructions from 1&1 to export the XML file; and followed the WordPress import instructions, but not luck.

From my old blog site using the limited 1&1 blog format:

Export
When you click the button below WordPress will create an XML file for you to save to your computer.
This format, which we call WordPress eXtended RSS or WXR, will contain your posts, comments, custom fields, and categories.
Once you’ve saved the download file, you can use the Import function on another WordPress blog to import this blog.

To my new blog site set up with WordPress:

Import WordPress
Sorry, there has been an error.
This does not appear to be a WXR file, missing/invalid WXR version number

The following text appears at the beginning of my exported file:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″ ?>
– <!–
This is a WordPress eXtended RSS file generated by WordPress as an export of
your blog. It contains information about your blog’s posts, comments, and
categories. You may use this file to transfer that content from one site to
another. This file is not intended to serve as a complete backup of your
blog.

To import this information into a WordPress blog follow these steps:

1. Log into that blog as an administrator.
2. Go to Manage > Import in the blog’s admin.
3. Choose “WordPress” from the list of importers.
4. Upload this file using the form provided on that page.
5. You will first be asked to map the authors in this export file to users
on the blog. For each author, you may choose to map an existing user on
the blog or to create a new user.
6. WordPress will then import each of the posts, comments, and categories
contained in this file onto your blog.
–>

I am very inexperienced with the whole process and with WordPress in general. Any idea what my issue might be and how I might fix it? If not, is there a way to paste the individual posts into the new blog and just manipulate the dates back to when they were posted on the original site? I don’t have threads of comments or replies to worry about…