I'm trying to shrink my main partition (300 GB) down to about 250Gigs so I can dual boot Kubuntu Linux, with the intention of removing Vista, and replacing it with XP in a few months time.  

I cant shrink the partition using the built in feature at all. I've defragged to cluster all the files together, turned off System Restore, Shadow Volume Copying, and Snapshots (I think snapshots anyway), and still nothing.  There's 200 Gigs of Free Space on Disk

Any Ideas at all?  Other than beating my computer with a hammer, that is

Do you have a Kubuntu LiveCD? If not, obtain one and use the partitioning program included with it. It would go something like this:
Boot into the Kubuntu LiveCD desktop.
Install the package gparted (and any other packages required for gparted) using the Kubuntu installation tool, I forget the name.
Fire up gparted, and resize your Windows partition using gparted.
Then, just install Kubuntu straight from the LiveCD.
Ta~dah~

I read something about it, but i also read that if you use the LiveCD to repartition it'll make the Vista unbootable.  Is this true?

I haven't heard anything about that, but I'm not sure how it would. All you would be doing is resizing the partition that Vista is on, not changing the MBR (Master Boot Record) or anything like that. I'll leave it up to you, though.

mm, I might give it a try in the morning, I still have my disks that came with the computer, so it's not like I'll lose much, lol.  Thanks!

You should also try defragging before shrinking... that can help!

That can help, which is why he already did it.

So, did it work joe? Or is the fact that you're offline proof that it didn't work?

Doh my apologies... I dident read it through

Ugh, my most recent live CD for Linux doesn't work, so I've been tearing through my newly cleaned room for it.  I hate cleaning, can never find anything afterwards...

heh, I have a healthy bit of RAM, so since it still won't work, I'm just going to run VMware, and run linux that way

Looks really awesome now

Why not just scrap vista?

Vista is, in quite a few ways, superior to XP.

it is not as bad as people make it out to be; it's not perfect, but then, what is?