Hard disk memory disappearing

hi
i have a power book G4 running panther OSX 10.3.9 about 4 years old but the hardrive is only 2 years old.
it's memory filled up recently so i removed 3 gigs worth of memory. i then downloaded a pdf form only for all the free memory to disappear. so i cleaned out more memory about 1.4 gigs worth only for that to disappear as well. is this a virus or a consequence of running the computer with hardly any memory.
any ideas will be greatfully received

Hi Zacster!
What size is the Hard Drive, and how much free space is available?
To find that info, click once on the Hard Drive icon to highlight it.
Press the Command + I keys to Get Info.
What is displayed for:
Capacity: ?
Available: ?
Used: ?
As Thomas Bryant posted, insufficient available space, can cause performance issues, system corruption, and possible loss of data.
Depending on Mac system usage habits, it is a general recommendation, to keep 10% to as much as 20%, of the Total capacity, available at all times.
Review the suggestions, in the documents that I have linked to below.
Authored by Dr Smoke:
Problems From Insufficient RAM And Free Hard Disk Space
Freeing Space On Your Mac OS X Startup Disk
Have you ever run any routine Maintenance procedures, as suggested in the articles linked to below?
Mac OS X 10.3/10.4: System Maintenance, authored by Gulliver
Maintaining Mac OS X, authored by Dr Smoke
Is the Mac shutdown overnight, or does it run 24/7?
If you turn the Mac off nightly, the Background Maintenance Tasks, are never run.
These can also be run, using a Third-Party utility, or manually using Terminal, to run the CRON Commands.
I use MacJanitor, when necessary.
INSTRUCTIONS TO RUN CRON MANUAL COMMANDS
Quit all applications/programs.
Navigate to HD > Applications > Utilities.
Double click on Terminal, to open.
At the prompt, type:
sudo periodic daily
Press Return.
Enter your Admin password when prompted, then press Return.
This will execute the daily script that is sheduled to run every night.
When completed, repeat this procedure, but change the command to:
sudo periodic weekly
This one rebuilds a database or two, and usually takes somewhat longer to complete. It is scheduled to run once a week.
Repeat again, with command:
sudo periodic monthly
Or they can all be run in one pass, which is preferable, with this command:
sudo periodic daily weekly monthly
When the tasks complete, and return to the prompt, you may quit Terminal.
Restart the Mac, and run Repair Permissions.
TO REPAIR PERMISSIONS ON THE STARTUP DISK
1.Open Disk Utility, located in Applications/Utilities, and select the startup disk in the left column.
2.Click First Aid.
3.Click Verify Disk Permissions to test permissions or Repair Disk Permissions to test and repair permissions. (I never "Verify". Just run "Repair".)
Rerun RP, until the only messages reported, are listed here Spurious Permissions Errors Using: 10.3.x, authored by Michael Conniff.
When "Repair Permissions" is complete. Quit "Disk Utility".
ali b

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Occasionally my hard disk space will start disappearing for no apparent (to me) reason. I'll have 15 gigs of available hard disk space that will disappear, and I'll get messages that I'm running out of disk space, interfering with what I'm doing.
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Moscity wrote:
The problem is, that there is more than 50 GB out of 250 GB filled with something I can't find.
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