title: SQL Server - Dropped table but unused space is not reclaimed?
body: <p>The most common variation of this question that I've seen is that people deleted rows and/or columns but the size didn't decrease, and most of the replies in response to this question is that you shouldn't try to shrink your database if you can help it. From what I've read, the best way to handle this is to insert the contents into a new table which would allow SQL to neatly compile the data. </p>
  
  <p>I'm not sure if what I'm about to say is the same thing, but I deleted several large, unused <strong><em>tables</em></strong> from my database that should have freed up some space, but it seems like it did absolutely nothing. I started out with 14GB in size, and after deletion, I still have 14GB in size.</p>
  
  <p>Here's a snapshot of what it looks like after deletion:</p>
  
  <pre><code>FileSizeMB  UsedSpaceMB UnusedSpaceMB   Type    DBFileName
  285.06      8.94          276.13        Log     Database_DB_log
  13866.00    9160.88       4705.13       Data    Database_DB
  14151.06    9169.82       4981.26               *** Total for all files ***
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The script can be found here: <a href="http://www.sqlteam.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=61762" rel="nofollow">http://www.sqlteam.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=61762</a></p>
  
  <p>From this summary, it definitely looks like I've got some unused space that's from the tables I just deleted, but is there a way to reclaim it without doing a shrink? I'm just very uncomfortable doing a shrink because of all the bad things I've read about it, and given I've never dealt with indexes in SQL, I'm not confident that I will be able to re-index properly.</p>
  
  <p>Any thoughts?</p>