USB Stick - any way to access files?

[viralviv]

I've a load of files I need to access but something appears to have gone wrong with my USB stick. Plugged into my laptop it comes up 'Scan and repair' which I run but then doesn't seem to read it. That is, it doesn't register on the laptop as a device so I am assuming something's gone wrong with the USB stick. I've tried it on another laptop with the same result.

Is there any way at all of accessing the files on there?

Pretty unlikely I would think. Is it one you haven't used for a long time? Have you got the device it was originally formatted with, and was that a laptop/Windows or something else? Some devices seem to use a different format. ( Not an expert)

It was a completely new one. It transferred all the files across pre xmas and now my laptops don't seem to want to read it