diff --git a/fs/ext4/ioctl.c b/fs/ext4/ioctl.c
index 016857cebfda..396cbdb6b9d3 100644
--- a/fs/ext4/ioctl.c
+++ b/fs/ext4/ioctl.c
@@ -425,7 +425,7 @@ static long swap_inode_boot_loader(struct super_block *sb,
 	/* Protect extent tree against block allocations via delalloc */
 	ext4_double_down_write_data_sem(inode, inode_bl);
 
-	if (inode_bl->i_nlink == 0) {
+	if (is_bad_inode(inode_bl) || !S_ISREG(inode_bl->i_mode)) {
 		/* this inode has never been used as a BOOT_LOADER */
 		set_nlink(inode_bl, 1);
 		i_uid_write(inode_bl, 0);