SQL-Server: sp_spaceused gives zero rows but big dataSize for cleaned table

After cleaning my table with DELETE FROM MyTable (and executing DBCC shrinkdatabase('MyDB') should that matter) I run the statement EXEC sp_spaceused MyTable. The results confuse me:

tableName   numberOfRows   reservedSize   dataSize   indexSize   unusedSize
---------   ------------   ------------   --------   ---------   ----------
MyTable     0              21664 KB       20672 KB   736 KB      256 KB

As you can see there are zero rows, yet there's almost 21 MB of data. My question is: what are possible causes for this situation and/or how can I further investigate this?

DELETE does not reclaim space, it deletes rows.

Space can remain allocated for several reasons, 3 of which are:

• ghost clean up is still running

• the table has no clustered index

• the system tables are not updated yet

Try

• EXEC sp_spaceused 'MyTable', 'true' to force a space used update

• TRUNCATE TABLE which deallocates space, rather then deleting rows

• DELETE myTABLE WITH (TABLOCKX) if no clustered index and can't use TRUNCATE

Don't run DBCC shrinkdatabase because it adds no value and it will simply grow again

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#9141, answer score: 5