[SOLVED] my export file is full of weird characters

Hello,

I've had a blog with Atahualpa theme for a few years now and also have two other sites running on Atahualpha, so am a pretty confident user. I've not really changed anything in my settings for a while and also not been upgrading Atahualpa, so have not exported my settings for a while.
I've just started a new test site and wanted to start off with exporting my settings of my main blog mafgirl.com and importing them to the test blog to start customizing.
However, when I go to ATO/ export settings, the file it generates is full of weird characters rather than code, it starts off like this:
and goes on forever just like it. I've attached the file to this thread - uhm, no I haven't, apparently my quota for attachments is full but I'm not able to delete older attachments- never mind, I hope the above quote helps you to get the gist?
When I try to import the weird text file anyway (you just never know ) I get the message: sorry, but doesn't appear to be a valid Atahualpa Settings file.
I tried exporting the settings in Safari (5.0.5), Firefox (4.0.1) and IE (9) . I tried saving them or opening them in notepad, but all with the same results. I then tried my other Atahualpa website and it does the same... They are both running on Atahualpa version: 3.5.1 (Told you I hadn't upgraded for a while... :S ) my new test site exports the settings just fine, but that is a new install of Atahualpa 3.6.7. I even restarted my laptop and tried all the above again, but to no avail..

I am now worried about upgrading either of my two 3.5.1 blogs as I cannot export my settings before I do!
Any ideas on how to fix this?