After being used to Visual Studio, where the project and solution files are not a 1-1 match to the file system, I used Eclipse (or some other Java IDE) and found to my shock that when I remove files from the project it also deletes them from disk.<p>Not as bad as this but certainly an eye-opener.
Totally the guy's fault. No one in their right mind should have 3 months (or even a few days) worth of code without a backup/version control system set up.
Solution:<p>1) Reproduce exact problem.
2) Say "Fascinating" in your best Spock impression.
3) Restore from daily backup.<p>If you cannot do 3, then you've found THE base problem.