Last Updated on 2013-10-15.

Using Windows 2000 Server nowadays still has some advantages, if you only need a cheap server system e.g. to provide USB license dongles access in your LAN. A workstation operating system like Windows XP, 7 or 8 is not useful in this case, because it limits the concurrent incoming connections to 5 or 15; Windows 2000 Server does not have this limit.

So since electricity gets even more expensive it might be an idea to virtualize even such an “old” operating system. With a USB-to-network device like from Digitus, it is also no problem to access local USB devices.

Steps to migrate

If you use a basic formatted HDD, the fastest way would be to make a full backup with Acronis True Image and then let it convert the image to a VHD file. To avoid errors like 0x0000007B (inaccessible_boot_device), see this site before the backup to create a registry file to extend it for the Hyper-V virtual HDD drivers. Then configure a new Hyper-V VM with the existing VHD file and it should work.

Unfortunately, if you use Windows Software RAID or a dynamic HDD on your physical machine, you cannot convert it back to a basic disk easily like in Windows 2003 and above. So the best way would be to make a full backup with the Windows backup software.

Then create your new Hyper-V virtual machine with a new virtual hard disk and run a fresh Windows 2000 Server installation from Setup CD.

Restore your system within the VM using the backup you created before.

So after installing the Hyper-V drivers for the guest system, everything should run fine.