diff --git a/fs/ext3/balloc.c b/fs/ext3/balloc.c
index 03d39b6fd305..5a2c198762f0 100644
--- a/fs/ext3/balloc.c
+++ b/fs/ext3/balloc.c
@@ -1515,10 +1515,8 @@ retry_alloc:
 		if (group_no >= ngroups)
 			group_no = 0;
 		gdp = ext3_get_group_desc(sb, group_no, &gdp_bh);
-		if (!gdp) {
-			*errp = -EIO;
-			goto out;
-		}
+		if (!gdp)
+			goto io_error;
 		free_blocks = le16_to_cpu(gdp->bg_free_blocks_count);
 		/*
 		 * skip this group if the number of