adding a new partition for linux without removing the old one
 

How do I go about doing this? I have windows install on my hard drive using the whole hard drive. I know normally in order to re partition a hard drive to add more partitions you need to whipe it clean. But is there a way to just take a few gigs off my windows partition and use it for a linux one?

It's possible and the option is called 'resize' if it appears in a partitioning program. The only thing is which filesystem you have. FAT resizes fine, NTFS usually too. Still, it's a complicated peration, so you should make a backup of your most important files before you try this. There are many programs that can do this. One of them is GParted: http://gparted.sourceforge.net/ (it may be also included in your system).

Also QTParted (comes with many Linux distros--including the Knoppix Live CD---which is a handy thing to have it its own right.)

Do not attempt to re-size your existing partition without having all important data backed up. Also, many recommended de-fragmenting before re-sizing.