S2 re-upgrade possible?

Before you flame me, I've read through a TON of threads on the topic and I still can't find a definitive answer to my re-upgrade question, here it is. Common question.

I have a 540040 S2 single tuner that I bought a while ago. I successfully upgraded the 40GB drive (thanks Tivo Community!) to a 250GB drive. I recently bought a 500GB drive and thought I'd just add it as a 2nd drive. After reading a ton of threads about that, it sounds like 2 drives is not a great idea. Given the Tivo is loaded into a cabinet, I think I'd be most concerned about the extra heat.

Anyway, the big question is can I basically do what I did the first time with the new drives?

I want to take the current 250GB HD and upgrade it to the single 500GB HD, while keeping the programs.

A few forums tell me this is possible but I'd have to lose the programs. Others say it's not even possible because of some partitioning issues. Most of those threads are 2005 so I'm REALLY hoping we're all modernized and someone's figured it out?

OH, and I've been running the 250GB drive for over a year and recently reallocated the original drive for my daughter's PC. That may not have been the greatest of ideas, but I don't have that original anymore.

HELP! Either make it clear that I should stop pursuing the idea or brighten my horizon!!!