How to set up a dual boot on a thinkpad

[Carruth, Rusty]

Sorry, I'm late to the party, but I will give my results using a winXP
Lenovo ThinkPad T410.

I had to shut down windows, NOT hibernate it.

Then I simply booted from the linux cd (Mint or Ubuntu, IIRC), apt-got
gparted, ran gparted and resized, and off I went.

I assume you started by shutting down windows and not suspending or
hibernating?

Rusty