In short, my PC is unable to read a USB stick of mine that has some backed-up files on it. A dialogue box comes up saying “Location is not available: [drive] is not accessible, the file or directory is corrupted and unreadable.” I’ve tried uninstalling/reinstalling the driver, and attempted a check & repair with no joy.

Leaving aside the philosophical conundrum of how many backups of backups should be considered “safe”, does anyone have any hints for getting the data off it (even if it’s only once before disposing of the USB stick?) There are also many recovery software packages out there – it doesn’t have to be free (it’ll be worth paying out to get this data back), but I’d appreciate any recommendations before I invest in one… thanks a lot folks, enjoy the rest of your your day!