int level = conf->level;
 
        if (rcw) {
-               /* if we are not expanding this is a proper write request, and
-                * there will be bios with new data to be drained into the
-                * stripe cache
-                */
-               if (!expand) {
-                       sh->reconstruct_state = reconstruct_state_drain_run;
-                       set_bit(STRIPE_OP_BIODRAIN, &s->ops_request);
-               } else
-                       sh->reconstruct_state = reconstruct_state_run;
-
-               set_bit(STRIPE_OP_RECONSTRUCT, &s->ops_request);
 
                for (i = disks; i--; ) {
                        struct r5dev *dev = &sh->dev[i];
                                s->locked++;
                        }
                }
+               /* if we are not expanding this is a proper write request, and
+                * there will be bios with new data to be drained into the
+                * stripe cache
+                */
+               if (!expand) {
+                       if (!s->locked)
+                               /* False alarm, nothing to do */
+                               return;
+                       sh->reconstruct_state = reconstruct_state_drain_run;
+                       set_bit(STRIPE_OP_BIODRAIN, &s->ops_request);
+               } else
+                       sh->reconstruct_state = reconstruct_state_run;
+
+               set_bit(STRIPE_OP_RECONSTRUCT, &s->ops_request);
+
                if (s->locked + conf->max_degraded == disks)
                        if (!test_and_set_bit(STRIPE_FULL_WRITE, &sh->state))
                                atomic_inc(&conf->pending_full_writes);
                BUG_ON(!(test_bit(R5_UPTODATE, &sh->dev[pd_idx].flags) ||
                        test_bit(R5_Wantcompute, &sh->dev[pd_idx].flags)));
 
-               sh->reconstruct_state = reconstruct_state_prexor_drain_run;
-               set_bit(STRIPE_OP_PREXOR, &s->ops_request);
-               set_bit(STRIPE_OP_BIODRAIN, &s->ops_request);
-               set_bit(STRIPE_OP_RECONSTRUCT, &s->ops_request);
-
                for (i = disks; i--; ) {
                        struct r5dev *dev = &sh->dev[i];
                        if (i == pd_idx)
                                s->locked++;
                        }
                }
+               if (!s->locked)
+                       /* False alarm - nothing to do */
+                       return;
+               sh->reconstruct_state = reconstruct_state_prexor_drain_run;
+               set_bit(STRIPE_OP_PREXOR, &s->ops_request);
+               set_bit(STRIPE_OP_BIODRAIN, &s->ops_request);
+               set_bit(STRIPE_OP_RECONSTRUCT, &s->ops_request);
        }
 
        /* keep the parity disk(s) locked while asynchronous operations