can i safely install win XP on Acer Aspire One 722 netbook?

The netbook came with a Win 7 home version OS. However, i find that Win7 64 bit is an unnecessary overkill for a 2 ram 1ghz dual core machine.

http://www.ibuyathome.com/product/bac18ef3-4f19-4311-b362-fe437df5634c.aspx?lang=th

However going on the manufacturer site, i see that they have no drivers for anything but windows 7.

So my question is: will it be ok to format and install win xp and use either driver genius or uniblue's driver scanner to get the needed drivers?

 

You can try but it's likely there are no XP drivers for your netbook. If you can't find SATA drivers, you won't even be able to begin installation as XP has very limited SATA support, and without those drivers will not even be able to recognize your HD. Make sure you have a way to recover your OS if it doesn't work out for you should you decide to take the plunge anyway.

I have Xubuntu on my Aspire One as I was not impressed with Windows 7 Starter performance. You can boot it off a USB drive to try it out then install it if you are satisfied with it or just reboot into your original OS if not.
Xubuntu
Universal USB Installer

 

The 722 does not have Windows Starter, it has 64 bit Home Premium which I've happily been using for a year.

 

You should also be aware that Microsoft will stop supporting XP sometime next year.

 

Support for XP SP3 ends April 8, 2014 and support for Win 7 SP1 runs through January 2020.
Since Acer doesn't support XP and its support will be ending, close to 6 years before support for Win 7 ends, I wouldn't waste time trying to find 3rd party drivers that might not work for the Acer hardware.
If you think it is too slow, replace the 2GB stick of RAM with a 4GB stick. (It only has one memory slot and supports up to 4GB of RAM).

I attach an external DVD burner and have been able to watch and burn DVDs and haven't noticed any hiccuping with the 2GB of RAM installed. I do however go through a new computer and uninstall (using Revo) all the bloatware. One of the slowdowns would be the trial av program installed.

 

SOLVED. I was trying to do the exact same thing and fixed it. You need to boot the Acer One 722 using IDE mode for the SATA controller, accessible in the BIOS. Only after doing this did XP installer detect my drive. Good luck.

 

Be careful about bumping necro threads. This one has been dead for many months and likely resolved.