Could someone please walk me through the process of fixing overlapping partitions. I am a multiboot hobbyist (Windows and Linux). The last flavor of Ubuntu which I installed a few days ago automatically selected and reformatted my swap partition. (I did not manually select a swap partition because I already had one.) There did not seem to be any way to turn off that option so I let it go ahead. Afterwards I got the "overlapping partitions not allowed" error in gparted and noticed that the swap partition was now overlapping. I tried following this guide http://gparted.org/h2-fix-msdos-pt.p...ing-partitions but had some problems; for example, $ sudo sfdisk -d /dev/sdc > sdc-backup.txt gave "no such directory" error.

I used to use Ranish. It's still available but hasn't be updated in years.

There is no easy solution for this problem. Just copy off files (if you can) and re-create new partitions with a modern application.

There was a few fdisk and other apps that were making these bad tables a long time ago. As to how it could have been messed up today would be a thing to look at further testing.

Get OEM diags for hard drive and run full tests. Run memtest for a few days too.

If you do get the geometry corrected you may have all sorts of other file and filesystem issues. This problem really messes up an OS.

Thanks for the prompt reply. Being that all eleven Linux distros on this disk are now booting and working normally, as well as the Windows on other disks, would it not be just as well to leave things as they are until I am forced to start from scratch. The Western Digital Diagnostic for the whole disk on which the Linus partitions are located passed. I was thinking about adding Windows 10 Tech Preview to the Windows OS's followed by Ubuntu Mate to the Linux. The only time there are any issues with the "overlapping partitions not allowed" are when I try to run Gparted in Linux. Is it likely that I am going to have problems adding the Ubuntu now. I have already used Windows to create unallocated space for both the Windows and the Ubuntu Mate. That is the only way I can think of to get back my Grub2 boot menu after the Windows 10 installation. The overlapping section is not immediately adjacent to any of the Linux partitions.

You might run into trouble at any time. If you would post the output from "fdisk -lu" folks would have some basis for specific advice.

Personally I prefer something readable(use [code] tags when posting output)

I agree with this, "You might run into trouble at any time"

The only other issue is that some apps may be reading the disk wrong. Is this an SSD?

You should use a file system resizer and then adjust the overlapping partitions with fdisk.
Just set the start and end sectors of partition correctly after deleteing overlapping partitions.
Be very careful DANGEROUS OPERATION. You keep a output of fdisk -l /dev/sdx and fdisk -lu /dev/sdx.
Please read the docs of command thoroughly and write down steps beforehand.

And it's better to make backup.

arch@arch-System-Product-Name:~ > fdisk -lu
arch@arch-System-Product-Name:~ >

arch@arch-System-Product-Name:~ > sudo parted /dev/sdc
[sudo] password for arch:
GNU Parted 2.3
Using /dev/sdc
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted)

No, 350gb sata II (two other sata II disks for Windows, etc.

arch@arch-System-Product-Name:~ > fdisk -l /dev/sdc
Cannot open /dev/sdc
arch@arch-System-Product-Name:~ >

Do I need to do this from a live cd or gparted cd?

from live CD (problem with partition 5)

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo parted /dev/sdc "print free"
Model: ATA WDC WD3200AAKS-7 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdc: 320GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
32.3kB 1049kB 1016kB Free Space
1 1049kB 15.0GB 15.0GB primary ext3 boot
15.0GB 15.0GB 879kB Free Space
2 15.0GB 320GB 305GB extended lba
5 15.0GB 20.2GB 5199MB logical linux-swap(v1)
6 20.2GB 42.0GB 21.8GB logical ext3
42.0GB 42.0GB 224kB Free Space
7 42.0GB 63.4GB 21.4GB logical ext4
63.4GB 63.4GB 244kB Free Space
8 63.4GB 79.2GB 15.8GB logical ext4
9 79.2GB 94.9GB 15.7GB logical ext4
94.9GB 94.9GB 44.5kB Free Space
10 94.9GB 112GB 16.9GB logical ext4
112GB 112GB 440kB Free Space
11 112GB 133GB 21.2GB logical ext4
12 133GB 149GB 15.8GB logical ext4
149GB 149GB 911kB Free Space
13 149GB 170GB 21.1GB logical ext4
170GB 170GB 1010kB Free Space
14 170GB 188GB 17.9GB logical ext4
188GB 188GB 26.6kB Free Space
15 188GB 206GB 18.1GB logical ext4
206GB 223GB 17.1GB Free Space
16 223GB 320GB 97.1GB logical ntfs
320GB 320GB 352kB Free Space

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

from live cd

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ fdisk -l /dev/sdc
Cannot open /dev/sdc
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -lu /dev/sdc

Disk /dev/sdc: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x2b7fa170

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 2048 29296969 14647461 83 Linux
/dev/sdc2 29298686 625141759 297921537 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdc5 29298688 39452671 5076992 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdc6 39454720 82075647 21310464 83 Linux
/dev/sdc7 82077696 123844607 20883456 83 Linux
/dev/sdc8 123846656 154687487 15420416 83 Linux
/dev/sdc9 154689536 185438207 15374336 83 Linux
/dev/sdc10 185440256 218402815 16481280 83 Linux
/dev/sdc11 218404864 259851374 20723255+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdc12 259852288 290758655 15453184 83 Linux
/dev/sdc13 290760704 331900927 20570112 83 Linux
/dev/sdc14 331902976 366860287 17478656 83 Linux
/dev/sdc15 366862336 402122751 17630208 83 Linux
/dev/sdc16 435570408 625141759 94785676 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$