The links below are interesting and relevant articles, to keep you from making the same mistakes many people do when disaster strikes
Read errors in flash memory – SD cards, Compact Flash and Memory sticks
Flash Drives are drives too – and you can recover data from them
Disaster Checklist – Steps to a quick recovery
What does “Drive Not Formatted” mean ?

What about damaged thumb drives? Do you know what can be done to recover the data?
I have a 1GB usb flash disk but when ever I plug it on the computer, it installs and the icon is visible BUT trying to open it by double clicking, a dialogue box opens saying that the removable disk should be plugged in.How do I resolve this problem.Any help will be highly W E L C O M E. Thanks in advance.