i started a new game the other day...figured why not...waiting on some fixes for skyrim...i make it to the door to talk to manny..(in the dinosaures mouth) load sreen locked up...i reset the console....load failure...data corrupted...yeah i was only a couple hours in and it was my only save

It happens...
Always use your own saves and use the slots available.. Untill Bethesda can create a more stable engine.. never rely on autosaves. It should not happen with manual saves..

The reason it did this (the save got corrupted when the console locked up.)

I myself just started a new game after about 5 months of not playing. I know how you feel, 19 hours in and my game froze around 6 or 7 times already. Seems to happen mostly after 3 to 4 hours of play. It starts to lag real bad then usually about 15 min later it will lock up. So I know when the lag comes to save it. I even cleared the cache on my xbox and deleted the patch and reinstalled it, it is running better though I might add, but still freezes up. No other games I have freeze at all, just FONV. Im wondering if the Ultimate Edition is having freezing issues too? Good luck with your game.

I have the Ultimate Edition and it does tend to freeze or do the continuous loading thing every once in a while.

The engine seems to overload.. because of data stacking (ie the soft cache is getting full)
Best advice...and which saved me frustration..
1. As soon as you see any kind of lag... manually save.
2. Load that save.. It is no guarantee you wont see a freeze..but you will have a starting point and don't loose hours of playing time.

Advice number two.
1. Manually save every time you are in your base.
2. Create a different manual save when you start a quest, and another when finishing.
3. Do the same on starting another new quest..
4. if one did not encounter (quest related) bugs, delete/overwrite the saves from step 2.. rinse and repeat. do the same for step 1. every time you enter your base.

thanks for the help guys, its just frustrating as hell, trying to play a game you love....and it dont love ya back....skyrims the same way...so now i gotta go buy mass effect or witcher 2