diff --git a/fs/ext3/balloc.c b/fs/ext3/balloc.c
index 92fd0338a6eb..f5b57a2ca35a 100644
--- a/fs/ext3/balloc.c
+++ b/fs/ext3/balloc.c
@@ -1547,6 +1547,7 @@ ext3_fsblk_t ext3_new_blocks(handle_t *handle, struct inode *inode,
 	 * turn off reservation for this allocation
 	 */
 	if (my_rsv && (free_blocks < windowsz)
+		&& (free_blocks > 0)
 		&& (rsv_is_empty(&my_rsv->rsv_window)))
 		my_rsv = NULL;
 
@@ -1585,7 +1586,7 @@ ext3_fsblk_t ext3_new_blocks(handle_t *handle, struct inode *inode,
 		 * free blocks is less than half of the reservation
 		 * window size.
 		 */
-		if (free_blocks <= (windowsz/2))
+		if (my_rsv && (free_blocks <= (windowsz/2)))
 			continue;
 
 		brelse(bitmap_bh);