If your laptop periodically freezes, switching distros won’t fix it.
Identifying the underlying issue (which is most likely a hardware defect) would be a better use of your time.
Your first step would be to try and reproduce the issue. See under what circumstances it happens. See if it happens from a live USB or only from your installed system (If it does, this eliminates the SSD as most probable culprit). Do a RAM test. Then ask for help with further trouble-shooting.
I wouldn’t assume a failing disk either.
But every time there’s an error you can’t pin on something you just did, a full backup should be the first thing you do as a matter of principle.
Don’t compress your images to 70% jpg!!!
HDD space is essentially free, just get more. With a 70% quality jpg, you lose the ability to crop, edit or blow up your images. It basically limits you to looking at them on a screen. And even there, you’ll get jarring artifacts in dark areas.