So, I figured I’d merge the files stored on my flash drive with the ones in my documents folder on my mac. So, I copy them over. OSX prompts me to replace, and I thought it would just replace the files that were already there, not the whole folder. Now, I’m out probably 4 hours of work, and there’s no way to get it back (I’ve already tried all of those recovery programs. I’m enabling time machine right this minute, and I’m backing up to my windows drive (on my server), using this nifty command in terminal:

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

Also, following the steps in this guide can greatly enhance your chances of success.