diff --git a/fs/ext3/namei.c b/fs/ext3/namei.c
index 4df39c4315e1..57402b5f030c 100644
--- a/fs/ext3/namei.c
+++ b/fs/ext3/namei.c
@@ -2191,6 +2191,12 @@ static int ext3_link (struct dentry * old_dentry,
 
 	if (inode->i_nlink >= EXT3_LINK_MAX)
 		return -EMLINK;
+	/*
+	 * Return -ENOENT if we've raced with unlink and i_nlink is 0.  Doing
+	 * otherwise has the potential to corrupt the orphan inode list.
+	 */
+	if (inode->i_nlink == 0)
+		return -ENOENT;
 
 retry:
 	handle = ext3_journal_start(dir, EXT3_DATA_TRANS_BLOCKS(dir->i_sb) +
diff --git a/fs/ext4/namei.c b/fs/ext4/namei.c
index e5a74a5ac261..05c0d7f8fdf9 100644
--- a/fs/ext4/namei.c
+++ b/fs/ext4/namei.c
@@ -2189,6 +2189,12 @@ static int ext4_link (struct dentry * old_dentry,
 
 	if (inode->i_nlink >= EXT4_LINK_MAX)
 		return -EMLINK;
+	/*
+	 * Return -ENOENT if we've raced with unlink and i_nlink is 0.  Doing
+	 * otherwise has the potential to corrupt the orphan inode list.
+	 */
+	if (inode->i_nlink == 0)
+		return -ENOENT;
 
 retry:
 	handle = ext4_journal_start(dir, EXT4_DATA_TRANS_BLOCKS(dir->i_sb) +