diff --git a/fs/jbd2/journal.c b/fs/jbd2/journal.c
index 81186a2..01c3901 100644
--- a/fs/jbd2/journal.c
+++ b/fs/jbd2/journal.c
@@ -1255,6 +1255,22 @@
 		goto out;
 	}
 
+	if (buffer_write_io_error(bh)) {
+		/*
+		 * Oh, dear.  A previous attempt to write the journal
+		 * superblock failed.  This could happen because the
+		 * USB device was yanked out.  Or it could happen to
+		 * be a transient write error and maybe the block will
+		 * be remapped.  Nothing we can do but to retry the
+		 * write and hope for the best.
+		 */
+		printk(KERN_ERR "JBD2: previous I/O error detected "
+		       "for journal superblock update for %s.\n",
+		       journal->j_devname);
+		clear_buffer_write_io_error(bh);
+		set_buffer_uptodate(bh);
+	}
+
 	spin_lock(&journal->j_state_lock);
 	jbd_debug(1,"JBD: updating superblock (start %ld, seq %d, errno %d)\n",
 		  journal->j_tail, journal->j_tail_sequence, journal->j_errno);
@@ -1266,9 +1282,16 @@
 
 	BUFFER_TRACE(bh, "marking dirty");
 	mark_buffer_dirty(bh);
-	if (wait)
+	if (wait) {
 		sync_dirty_buffer(bh);
-	else
+		if (buffer_write_io_error(bh)) {
+			printk(KERN_ERR "JBD2: I/O error detected "
+			       "when updating journal superblock for %s.\n",
+			       journal->j_devname);
+			clear_buffer_write_io_error(bh);
+			set_buffer_uptodate(bh);
+		}
+	} else
 		ll_rw_block(SWRITE, 1, &bh);
 
 out: