diff --git a/fs/ext3/balloc.c b/fs/ext3/balloc.c
index a177122a1b25..4a32511f4ded 100644
--- a/fs/ext3/balloc.c
+++ b/fs/ext3/balloc.c
@@ -1583,6 +1583,12 @@ retry_alloc:
 		if (!gdp)
 			goto io_error;
 		free_blocks = le16_to_cpu(gdp->bg_free_blocks_count);
+		/*
+		 * skip this group (and avoid loading bitmap) if there
+		 * are no free blocks
+		 */
+		if (!free_blocks)
+			continue;
 		/*
 		 * skip this group if the number of
 		 * free blocks is less than half of the reservation