Background: I had Windows 2000 running as a guest on a Linux host (Ubuntu 12.04). The host OS failed during an upgrade but I have a backup of the Windows 2000 directory with the .vmx and other files for the Windows 2000 virtual machine.

Problem:

1. The original Windows 2000 guest was created using Workstation 5.x on a Linux host (Ubuntu 12.04).

2. Workstation 15.x is installed on the new Linux host (Ubuntu 20.04) does not recognize the .vmx file created by Workstation 5.x

3. How to create a Windows 2000 guest in Workstation 15.x and safely transfer the data from the old Windows 2000 directory.

I hope someone can point me in the right direction and thank you in advance for any help you can give.