diff --git a/fs/reiserfs/file.c b/fs/reiserfs/file.c
index f347317..be12879 100644
--- a/fs/reiserfs/file.c
+++ b/fs/reiserfs/file.c
@@ -1464,13 +1464,11 @@
 		   partially overwritten pages, if needed. And lock the pages,
 		   so that nobody else can access these until we are done.
 		   We get number of actual blocks needed as a result. */
-		blocks_to_allocate =
-		    reiserfs_prepare_file_region_for_write(inode, pos,
-							   num_pages,
-							   write_bytes,
-							   prepared_pages);
-		if (blocks_to_allocate < 0) {
-			res = blocks_to_allocate;
+		res = reiserfs_prepare_file_region_for_write(inode, pos,
+							     num_pages,
+							     write_bytes,
+							     prepared_pages);
+		if (res < 0) {
 			reiserfs_release_claimed_blocks(inode->i_sb,
 							num_pages <<
 							(PAGE_CACHE_SHIFT -
@@ -1478,6 +1476,8 @@
 			break;
 		}
 
+		blocks_to_allocate = res;
+
 		/* First we correct our estimate of how many blocks we need */
 		reiserfs_release_claimed_blocks(inode->i_sb,
 						(num_pages <<