I'm sure or hope this post was meant as a joke...... :22yikes:

Thumbdrives can be very simple
 

Many thumb-drives are merely a solid state IC with contacts sticking out. The case just goes around the IC (integrated circuit - electronic components encased in epoxy).
If it worked for a while it sounds like one of the leads is broken. Ten minute job for a good tech with a small soldering iron.
If the data itself is not damaged then it's a simple cheap job to transfer it after repairing the IC.
Where high cost comes is if the data has been damaged by overwriting, deleting or physical damage to the actual medium. Even at $45/hour a $1000 (22 hours) is a big job.

Take it to U-Break We-Fix. See what they say. They'll give you a fair price on the spot. Many clubs recommend them for phone repairs too. They're off 441 in Wedgwood Plaza.
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Thumb drive should be a back up to hard drive. Then it would not be such a problem

I'm a redundancy addict. I save all my files to my USB. I have all my programs on my USB. I basically use my USB port as a primary file drive, and my hard drive as my bootup disk. I also have everything on my hard drive in a sub-directory. I also have it in the cloud. I also have several programs and files replicated on my tablet, laptop, and cell phone. The files on those I update occasionally - maybe a couple times every year. But they're all up to date on my USB and the cloud, and my hard drive.

Plus I have everything backed up to a different cloud server, AND in another partition on my hard drive.

With or without power, with or without internet, I can read a book, watch a movie, access all of my files, including a cookbook that I'm writing, so I can still make all my recipes even if my computer breaks.

I'd add an SSD drive to all of this, but I think that's a bit over the top :a040::1rotfl:

Gizmo Depot has repaired two iPhones for us. Very good work, very fast, and reasonably priced.