Creating a new partition in vista

So I want to clear up some space for a ubuntu install on my HDD but when I use the Vista partition tool to 'shrink' my current partition, it will only let me use 260Mb when there is 70gigs still free. It says if I have snapshots or pagefiles the amount could be restricted. What does that mean and how do I get around this so I can clear up around 40 gigs for ubuntu?

sorry to be impatient, but if i re-partition from the ubuntu install it wont affect my Vista boot will it?

Use GPARTED which comes on the ubuntu installer. It will resize your HD and set up a partition for Linux. I suggest using the ext 3 file system and making a swap partition double the size of the amount of RAM you have. the Linux installers are way more robust than any Microsoft utility, and they are a lot better for dual booting. You will configure your boot loader and everything through the Ubuntu installer.

Sousing the on screen partitioner when I install ubuntu will not hurt my vista install correct?

Only if you tell it to delete your vista install. Otherwise it won't hurt a thing. Do note that you always risk the possibility of data loss when doing this, so I would recommend you back everything up. In my experience it was pretty much worked every time.

It didnt work got hung up at 0% for over 40 minutes.

how did you set the partition schema?