Why does Skyrim keep freezing?

It should not be the manner of games installation.

Fake freezing: When it freezes look to the upper left of the screen. If it saves "Autosaving..." you do not have a real problem. The save files grow from about 2mb to over 13 mbs as the game goes on. And, it takes longer to save/load. I have had two saves take five minutes to complete (this is out of over 2000 hours of combined play in seven games.)

If it is a true crash, Restart the game by whatever method X-Box recommends.

Always, use three manual save game slots. Do not rely on autosaves. Use the three slots in rotation (overwriting). The game makes "Autosaves..." every time you pass through major doors, sleep, wait, or fifteen minutes has past without a manual save being made.

I have Skyrim installed on my Xbox 360 hard drive. I got it free with the console about a year and a half ago. Recently, it's been freezing a lot lately. Could it be because I don't have a physical copy of the disc? Or maybe because I have a ton of stuff on my hard drive? What should I do?

inb4xboxsucks

What are you playing it on? On a console, it would most likely be due to over heating. On a PC it may be due to over heating or your graphics are turned up too high. Have fun! FUS RO DUH!!!