Anyway i was getting error saving file messages from 3ds and i tried to copy my max files and i got errors too so i ran chkdsk and i get the message "Recovering orphaned file xxxxx.max (####) into directory file ######.
Hopefully my max file of my squidcraft is still recoverable because i dont have any other copy on another drive *sigh* I worked a few hours on it today too and id be really annoyed if i lost it.
its now stuck on "CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal". Not sure how long that will take (its only a 120GB drive) but its taking ages.
XSI upon doing a save automaticly copies the current file on disk to the backup dir prior to overwriting it and keeps 3 or 4 previous versions there as well - this already saved my skin one time. Maybe you can find something like that in 3dsmax too - if you save fairly often worst thing that can happen in such case is a minor setback worth a couple of minutes.