I am not sure how I screwed up my partitions but I did somehow. It all started when I wanted to expand some of my partitions so I put in my Partition Magic 8.0 CD in the drive and rebooted my machine. When Partition Magic started it had some error and asked me if I wanted to repair it, I said yes. That was the start of my problem. Partition Magic reports the second hard drive /dev/hdb as "Bad". When I run cfdisk /dev/hdb it gives me the following error "FATAL ERROR: Bad primary partition 1: logical partitions overlap". The system works it boots linux just fine and everything works but I can't change my partitions. Any ideas on how to fix it? I could reinstall. Thanks.

PM8 will give that message often when u use anything but ext2,ext3,or swap for linux partions. If u allow an O.S. to use,for example, RFS, Linux will see the partion as ok but PM8 and XP or W2X/W98 will show your errors. PM8 cant fix RFS partitions. If u want to erase the error, use Mepis or Kanotix live cd's or your Linux's qtparted or gparted to format the RFS partn. as ext3 or to delete the partn then let PM8 create the linux partions.
I use PM8 to create my Linux partions and now get no more similar errors. Good luck. A live-cd can be a good friend.

I forgot to mention I am using ext2.

since we know you have an error or 2 with your logical partitions I concur with lestoil that as you have nothing to lose....use a linux live cd such as kanotix.....(I use it all the time) and open a terminal then it is command
su (no need to root password) then run command qtparted then deliberately go to your logical you changed and reduce them then resize them and let it write to the MBR.

2) a completely unasked solution if you have quota or partition full problems is re-install with a fresh 3 primary partition consisting of

a /boot
b / includes your home and usr
c swap file

and you will never have a partition full error but if you have greedy people in your house you will need to enable quota to stop their /home folders getting fat

From what I have seen about 50% of the partition table screw-ups are caused by listening to Partition Magic, believing our disks have errors and then asking PM to screw them for us. The disks never had any problem before!

PM is a Windows product. Just because it can partition a Ext2 or Ext3 partitions and we put our trust in it. If that is the case we clearly ask for it, didn't we?

I had my finger burn by PM too and no thank you I wouldn't let it anywhere near any of my disks.

The partition table can be rebuilt from scratch by first deleting everything entry. You need to have a record of the partition scheme first though.

fdisk program is pretty good because it wouldn't pack in even after cfdisk has refused to have anything to do with the corrupted disk.

I have rebuilt my 60 and 54 partitions hda and hdc about half a dozen times without the loss of any data.

saikee we need to remember that original poster uses,as I,PM8.
(Live-cd/Rescue-cds can help.)
But I remember allowing sarge and mepis to format and setup partions with ext3 and mandrake,xandros with RSF and the above error messages arose. That is why I setup linux partitions with PM8 with aid of their extensive manual. No more errors in yrs.
And haven't had to use fdisk or cfdisk. Guess I'm chicken to use them after losing 2 expensive HDs in past. Thanx.

Every hard disk I have in the 4 PCs is condemned by Partition Magic, regardless if it is an IDE or a Sata, Ext3, Ext2 or Reiserfs filing systems I use.

I have a total of 4 disks in my main box with a total of 144 partitions gradually filling up with all type of systems. Every time I run PM it wants to fix the errors in my disks. It took me a good few months to build up over 100 systems and publish my findings in a couple of threads. The disks are always reported perfect in any Linux program Qtparted, cfdisk, fdisk, sfdisk, Diskdruid , Yast and even Grub. There were no errors reported by Solaris and the 6 BSDs I installed either.

Somehow I don't believe PM, as a Windows-based software is qualified to comment on a LInux disk. For a start we can have 63 partitions in an IDE disk and I don't think PM has an alphabet system to cope with it.

It is a well established fact the PM's advices can corrupt Linux hard disks. I have picked up this tips from various forums as well as being a victim before.