diff --git a/include/linux/mmzone.h b/include/linux/mmzone.h
index 652673ea92f1..e82fc1a52cd0 100644
--- a/include/linux/mmzone.h
+++ b/include/linux/mmzone.h
@@ -333,6 +333,9 @@ void wakeup_kswapd(struct zone *zone, int order);
 int zone_watermark_ok(struct zone *z, int order, unsigned long mark,
 		int classzone_idx, int alloc_flags);
 
+extern int init_currently_empty_zone(struct zone *zone, unsigned long start_pfn,
+				     unsigned long size);
+
 #ifdef CONFIG_HAVE_MEMORY_PRESENT
 void memory_present(int nid, unsigned long start, unsigned long end);
 #else
diff --git a/mm/memory_hotplug.c b/mm/memory_hotplug.c
index 70df5c0d957e..71da5c98c9c1 100644
--- a/mm/memory_hotplug.c
+++ b/mm/memory_hotplug.c
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@
 
 extern void zonetable_add(struct zone *zone, int nid, int zid, unsigned long pfn,
 			  unsigned long size);
-static void __add_zone(struct zone *zone, unsigned long phys_start_pfn)
+static int __add_zone(struct zone *zone, unsigned long phys_start_pfn)
 {
 	struct pglist_data *pgdat = zone->zone_pgdat;
 	int nr_pages = PAGES_PER_SECTION;
@@ -34,8 +34,15 @@ static void __add_zone(struct zone *zone, unsigned long phys_start_pfn)
 	int zone_type;
 
 	zone_type = zone - pgdat->node_zones;
+	if (!populated_zone(zone)) {
+		int ret = 0;
+		ret = init_currently_empty_zone(zone, phys_start_pfn, nr_pages);
+		if (ret < 0)
+			return ret;
+	}
 	memmap_init_zone(nr_pages, nid, zone_type, phys_start_pfn);
 	zonetable_add(zone, nid, zone_type, phys_start_pfn, nr_pages);
+	return 0;
 }
 
 extern int sparse_add_one_section(struct zone *zone, unsigned long start_pfn,
@@ -50,7 +57,11 @@ static int __add_section(struct zone *zone, unsigned long phys_start_pfn)
 	if (ret < 0)
 		return ret;
 
-	__add_zone(zone, phys_start_pfn);
+	ret = __add_zone(zone, phys_start_pfn);
+
+	if (ret < 0)
+		return ret;
+
 	return register_new_memory(__pfn_to_section(phys_start_pfn));
 }
 
diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
index 5ae75bead4df..4bc66f6b7718 100644
--- a/mm/page_alloc.c
+++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
@@ -2050,8 +2050,9 @@ static __meminit void zone_pcp_init(struct zone *zone)
 			zone->name, zone->present_pages, batch);
 }
 
-static __meminit void init_currently_empty_zone(struct zone *zone,
-		unsigned long zone_start_pfn, unsigned long size)
+__meminit int init_currently_empty_zone(struct zone *zone,
+					unsigned long zone_start_pfn,
+					unsigned long size)
 {
 	struct pglist_data *pgdat = zone->zone_pgdat;
 
@@ -2063,6 +2064,8 @@ static __meminit void init_currently_empty_zone(struct zone *zone,
 	memmap_init(size, pgdat->node_id, zone_idx(zone), zone_start_pfn);
 
 	zone_init_free_lists(pgdat, zone, zone->spanned_pages);
+
+	return 0;
 }
 
 /*
@@ -2077,6 +2080,7 @@ static void __meminit free_area_init_core(struct pglist_data *pgdat,
 	unsigned long j;
 	int nid = pgdat->node_id;
 	unsigned long zone_start_pfn = pgdat->node_start_pfn;
+	int ret;
 
 	pgdat_resize_init(pgdat);
 	pgdat->nr_zones = 0;
@@ -2118,7 +2122,8 @@ static void __meminit free_area_init_core(struct pglist_data *pgdat,
 			continue;
 
 		zonetable_add(zone, nid, j, zone_start_pfn, size);
-		init_currently_empty_zone(zone, zone_start_pfn, size);
+		ret = init_currently_empty_zone(zone, zone_start_pfn, size);
+		BUG_ON(ret);
 		zone_start_pfn += size;
 	}
 }