* to make a better decision. This favors long-term performace gain
         * with a better on-disk layout vs. a short term gain of skipping the
         * read and potentially having a bad placement. */
-       if (info->first_zero_hint == 0) {
+       if (info->free_count == UINT_MAX) {
                struct buffer_head *bh = reiserfs_read_bitmap_block(s, bm);
                brelse(bh);
        }
 {
        unsigned long *cur = (unsigned long *)(bh->b_data + bh->b_size);
 
-       info->first_zero_hint = 1 << (sb->s_blocksize_bits + 3);
+       /* The first bit must ALWAYS be 1 */
+       BUG_ON(!reiserfs_test_le_bit(0, (unsigned long *)bh->b_data));
+
+       info->free_count = 0;
 
        while (--cur >= (unsigned long *)bh->b_data) {
-               int base = ((char *)cur - bh->b_data) << 3;
+               int i;
 
                /* 0 and ~0 are special, we can optimize for them */
-               if (*cur == 0) {
-                       info->first_zero_hint = base;
+               if (*cur == 0)
                        info->free_count += BITS_PER_LONG;
-               } else if (*cur != ~0L) {       /* A mix, investigate */
-                       int b;
-                       for (b = BITS_PER_LONG - 1; b >= 0; b--) {
-                               if (!reiserfs_test_le_bit(b, cur)) {
-                                       info->first_zero_hint = base + b;
+               else if (*cur != ~0L)   /* A mix, investigate */
+                       for (i = BITS_PER_LONG - 1; i >= 0; i--)
+                               if (!reiserfs_test_le_bit(i, cur))
                                        info->free_count++;
-                               }
-                       }
-               }
        }
-       /* The first bit must ALWAYS be 1 */
-       BUG_ON(info->first_zero_hint == 0);
 }
 
 struct buffer_head *reiserfs_read_bitmap_block(struct super_block *sb,
                BUG_ON(!buffer_uptodate(bh));
                BUG_ON(atomic_read(&bh->b_count) == 0);
 
-               if (info->first_zero_hint == 0)
+               if (info->free_count == UINT_MAX)
                        reiserfs_cache_bitmap_metadata(sb, bh, info);
        }
 
        if (bitmap == NULL)
                return -ENOMEM;
 
-       memset(bitmap, 0, sizeof (*bitmap) * SB_BMAP_NR(sb));
+       memset(bitmap, 0xff, sizeof(*bitmap) * SB_BMAP_NR(sb));
 
        SB_AP_BITMAP(sb) = bitmap;
 
 
                        mark_buffer_dirty(bh);
                        sync_dirty_buffer(bh);
                        // update bitmap_info stuff
-                       bitmap[i].first_zero_hint = 1;
                        bitmap[i].free_count = sb_blocksize(sb) * 8 - 1;
                        brelse(bh);
                }
        for (i = block_r; i < s->s_blocksize * 8; i++)
                reiserfs_test_and_clear_le_bit(i, bh->b_data);
        info->free_count += s->s_blocksize * 8 - block_r;
-       if (!info->first_zero_hint)
-               info->first_zero_hint = block_r;
 
        journal_mark_dirty(&th, s, bh);
        brelse(bh);
        brelse(bh);
 
        info->free_count -= s->s_blocksize * 8 - block_r_new;
-       /* Extreme case where last bitmap is the only valid block in itself. */
-       if (!info->free_count)
-               info->first_zero_hint = 0;
        /* update super */
        reiserfs_prepare_for_journal(s, SB_BUFFER_WITH_SB(s), 1);
        free_blocks = SB_FREE_BLOCKS(s);