# Database Discussions > Oracle >  Deallocation of space in USER tablespace after dropping a user

## sukhendu

After dropping one oracle user with "SQL>drop user username cascade;"
I saw it could not free up the space it occupied before drop. I want to get
back the space in my USER tablespace after issuing drop user.
How to deallocate the space ?
I'm using Oracle 11g on RHEL5 ..

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## skhanal

The free space on the tablespace must have gone up, are you trying to shrink the tablespace (and data file)?. You may have to do COALESC on tablespace and RESIZE data file.

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## sukhendu

Hi,
Actually, I want to free up total space ocupied by a dropped user/schema. Suppose, there are three schema A,B,C created in sequence. All three schemas have some objects in same USER tablespace having a single datafile.
After removing the first schema A, I want to get back the space ocupied by A. Now the question is will Oracle allow me to deallocate the space below the HWM of the datafile. Here the objects in B and C schemas are using the data blocks near the HWM and A is using data blocks at the start of the datafile.
In such a case what will be the best way to reclaim the space ?

Thanks & Regards
Sukhendu

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## skhanal

Since you are on 11g, you must be using ASSM for the tablespace, in that case you can reclaim space below HWM.

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