[SOLVED] - Merge option finished successfully, but windows say the disk need to be formatted. can i save the data???

Hi. Windows 7 X64, Disk Director 10. i got external hard drive(WD MY BOOK STUDIO 1TB) that had 3 partitions. i used the MERGE option to combine two partitions into 1 and everything wend fine.when the HD reconnect to my laptop, windows say that the drive need to be formatted. i tried to open disk director to see what is the HD state, and according to DD, the HD has 500GB of used space(but windows cant explore it).i tried to connect it to another laptop with linux, and i have access to the drive, but i got all kind of numbered directories, and i cant see all the data. in DD there is a RED "C" mark over the merged partition. is there any way to recover the data??? thanks.