diff -urN 2.4.5ac4/fs/ext2/ialloc.c 2.4.5ac5/fs/ext2/ialloc.c
--- 2.4.5ac4/fs/ext2/ialloc.c	Tue May 29 18:26:16 2001
+++ 2.4.5ac5/fs/ext2/ialloc.c	Wed May 30 22:04:14 2001
@@ -199,10 +199,15 @@
 
 	lock_super (sb);
 	es = sb->u.ext2_sb.s_es;
-	if (ino < EXT2_FIRST_INO(sb) || 
+	is_directory = S_ISDIR(inode->i_mode);
+
+	/* Do this BEFORE marking the inode not in use or returning an error */
+	clear_inode (inode);
+
+	if (ino < EXT2_FIRST_INO(sb) ||
 	    ino > le32_to_cpu(es->s_inodes_count)) {
-		ext2_error (sb, "free_inode",
-			    "reserved inode or nonexistent inode");
+		ext2_error (sb, "ext2_free_inode",
+			    "reserved or nonexistent inode %lu", ino);
 		goto error_return;
 	}
 	block_group = (ino - 1) / EXT2_INODES_PER_GROUP(sb);
@@ -210,13 +215,8 @@
 	bitmap_nr = load_inode_bitmap (sb, block_group);
 	if (bitmap_nr < 0)
 		goto error_return;
-	
-	bh = sb->u.ext2_sb.s_inode_bitmap[bitmap_nr];
 
-	is_directory = S_ISDIR(inode->i_mode);
-
-	/* Do this BEFORE marking the inode not in use */
-	clear_inode (inode);
+	bh = sb->u.ext2_sb.s_inode_bitmap[bitmap_nr];
 
 	/* Ok, now we can actually update the inode bitmaps.. */
 	if (!ext2_clear_bit (bit, bh->b_data))