diff --git a/drivers/md/md.c b/drivers/md/md.c
index f4f5f82f9f53..dd3dfe42d5a9 100644
--- a/drivers/md/md.c
+++ b/drivers/md/md.c
@@ -386,7 +386,9 @@ static void mddev_put(mddev_t *mddev)
 	if (!atomic_dec_and_lock(&mddev->active, &all_mddevs_lock))
 		return;
 	if (!mddev->raid_disks && list_empty(&mddev->disks) &&
-	    !mddev->hold_active) {
+	    mddev->ctime == 0 && !mddev->hold_active) {
+		/* Array is not configured at all, and not held active,
+		 * so destroy it */
 		list_del(&mddev->all_mddevs);
 		if (mddev->gendisk) {
 			/* we did a probe so need to clean up.
@@ -4355,7 +4357,7 @@ static int do_md_run(mddev_t * mddev)
 	mddev->barriers_work = 1;
 	mddev->ok_start_degraded = start_dirty_degraded;
 
-	if (start_readonly)
+	if (start_readonly && mddev->ro == 0)
 		mddev->ro = 2; /* read-only, but switch on first write */
 
 	err = mddev->pers->run(mddev);
@@ -4419,33 +4421,6 @@ static int do_md_run(mddev_t * mddev)
 
 	set_capacity(disk, mddev->array_sectors);
 
-	/* If there is a partially-recovered drive we need to
-	 * start recovery here.  If we leave it to md_check_recovery,
-	 * it will remove the drives and not do the right thing
-	 */
-	if (mddev->degraded && !mddev->sync_thread) {
-		int spares = 0;
-		list_for_each_entry(rdev, &mddev->disks, same_set)
-			if (rdev->raid_disk >= 0 &&
-			    !test_bit(In_sync, &rdev->flags) &&
-			    !test_bit(Faulty, &rdev->flags))
-				/* complete an interrupted recovery */
-				spares++;
-		if (spares && mddev->pers->sync_request) {
-			mddev->recovery = 0;
-			set_bit(MD_RECOVERY_RUNNING, &mddev->recovery);
-			mddev->sync_thread = md_register_thread(md_do_sync,
-								mddev,
-								"resync");
-			if (!mddev->sync_thread) {
-				printk(KERN_ERR "%s: could not start resync"
-				       " thread...\n",
-				       mdname(mddev));
-				/* leave the spares where they are, it shouldn't hurt */
-				mddev->recovery = 0;
-			}
-		}
-	}
 	md_wakeup_thread(mddev->thread);
 	md_wakeup_thread(mddev->sync_thread); /* possibly kick off a reshape */
 
@@ -5262,6 +5237,10 @@ static int set_array_info(mddev_t * mddev, mdu_array_info_t *info)
 		mddev->minor_version = info->minor_version;
 		mddev->patch_version = info->patch_version;
 		mddev->persistent = !info->not_persistent;
+		/* ensure mddev_put doesn't delete this now that there
+		 * is some minimal configuration.
+		 */
+		mddev->ctime         = get_seconds();
 		return 0;
 	}
 	mddev->major_version = MD_MAJOR_VERSION;
@@ -6494,10 +6473,11 @@ void md_do_sync(mddev_t *mddev)
 		mddev->curr_resync = 2;
 
 	try_again:
-		if (kthread_should_stop()) {
+		if (kthread_should_stop())
 			set_bit(MD_RECOVERY_INTR, &mddev->recovery);
+
+		if (test_bit(MD_RECOVERY_INTR, &mddev->recovery))
 			goto skip;
-		}
 		for_each_mddev(mddev2, tmp) {
 			if (mddev2 == mddev)
 				continue;