Anyway, to avoid this in the future, here's what you do.
1) Download Microsoft's SyncToy program
2) Make a directory on your PC for all the stuff you want to carry around on the stick. You could just nominate the 'My Documents' directory.
3) Set up SyncToy to synchronise the nominated directory to the USB stick. Now you have a mirror copy of what is on your PC
4) Very important- don't fuss with the files on the USB stick. Just read them. Don't save stuff from elsewhere on the stick- use another stick. Make changes only in the directories on the PC.
5) Every time you make a change to the files on the PC, run SyncToy and resynchronise the files on the USB stick.
If you do this then you are in a happy place, since if the PC is corrupted you have all of the files on the stick. If the stick is corrupted then wipe it and run SyncToy again. You have to be a little bit disciplined, but you can do this with many directories and many sticks. Once you get the hang of it you can do two-way syncing and other useful things.
SyncToy is also terribly useful for backups. Plug in your external USB drive and use SyncToy to mirror all of the files. If your PC is corrupted then reformat it and reinstall the software, then copy your data back from the external drive.
If you're really on the ball you will have multiple backups on different devices in different physical locations- your backup is no good if it was on the drive sitting next to the PC when your building collapsed and crushed them both.
