I've used Knoppix for this chore which gives you a GUI interface and thus avoid all linux issues
* get the source directory in one window and move it left half of the screen.
navigate to the directory with the contents you wish to save & open it
*get the target USB thumb drive in a second window in the righ half of the screen
create a target directory on this device [say RECOVERED] and open it
*Now, one-bye-one drag-n-drop every folder in the source(left) window into the right window
(you're copying folder by folder to keep control of where you are and what is completed).
*Then you can copy the files in the source to the recovery device with a multi-select, d-n-d as the last step.