Welcome to TSF:
I have used (free for 30 days) BOOT IT NG with success / it can merge, resize, restore partitions etc
I will reccommend this prog as you have the old drive with your dual OS's on them and data files. Partition merging can be tricky because there always seems to be some mistake between what the operator wants to do and what the program is about to do / but you have a good back-up ready in the ready stance and you seem to be above average experienced computer user ( playing with boot.ini ntldr and such) so I think you have an above average chance for first time success / I strongly suggest you print out the included manual / its well written and not too hard to follow ( a joy actually !!!!)
let us know how you progress / I am kinda of interested in how you tackle the dual boot merge / although BOOITNG is one of the few progs that can handle making a dual boot enviro in the SAME partition
http://terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html enjoy !!
regards
joe
I have used (free for 30 days) BOOT IT NG with success / it can merge, resize, restore partitions etc
I will reccommend this prog as you have the old drive with your dual OS's on them and data files. Partition merging can be tricky because there always seems to be some mistake between what the operator wants to do and what the program is about to do / but you have a good back-up ready in the ready stance and you seem to be above average experienced computer user ( playing with boot.ini ntldr and such) so I think you have an above average chance for first time success / I strongly suggest you print out the included manual / its well written and not too hard to follow ( a joy actually !!!!)
let us know how you progress / I am kinda of interested in how you tackle the dual boot merge / although BOOITNG is one of the few progs that can handle making a dual boot enviro in the SAME partition
http://terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html enjoy !!
regards
joe