<human>: Can you condense the text into three sentences or less?

So, I use a 16g flash drive for multiple things on my Macbook, PC, and Xbox 360. School work, save games, movies, etc. Earlier today, I was attempting to put Ubuntu on the flash drive while using my Macbook and I was following the instructions for putting Ubuntu on a USB stick provided on the [Ubuntu] site. I got to the end with no apparent problems. I'm pretty sure I successfully got the file onto the flash drive, except when I plug it into anything (Mac,PC,Xbox) it says the device isn't recognized and needs to be formatted. It doesn't show up at all. I'm not sure what I did wrong, but this flash drive is essentially my holy grail! It contains shit tons of school work, and even worse, all my Skyrim saves. So my question to Reddit basically is this: what the fuck did I do wrong? And is there any to fix it and keep my files on the flash drive?
<bot>: Fucked up my flash drive putting Ubuntu on it from a Macbook pro. Flash drive isn't recognized on anything, and prompts to be formatted. Is there any way to keep my old files?