diff -ur diff/linux/fs/reiserfs/inode.c linux/fs/reiserfs/inode.c
--- diff/linux/fs/reiserfs/inode.c	Tue Jan 16 14:14:22 2001
+++ linux/fs/reiserfs/inode.c	Sun Feb 25 16:25:31 2001
@@ -771,6 +771,7 @@
 	    ** flush unbh before the transaction commits
 	    */
 	    reiserfs_add_page_to_flush_list(&th, inode, unbh) ;
+	    mark_buffer_dirty(unbh) ;
 		  
 	    //inode->i_blocks += inode->i_sb->s_blocksize / 512;
 	    //mark_tail_converted (inode);
diff -ur diff/linux/fs/reiserfs/stree.c linux/fs/reiserfs/stree.c
--- diff/linux/fs/reiserfs/stree.c	Mon Jan 15 18:31:19 2001
+++ linux/fs/reiserfs/stree.c	Sun Feb 25 16:25:31 2001
@@ -1438,7 +1438,6 @@
 
     if ( p_s_un_bh )  {
 	int off;
-        int block_off ;
         char *data ;
 
 	/* We are in direct2indirect conversion, so move tail contents
@@ -1452,7 +1451,8 @@
 	** the unformatted node, which might schedule, meaning we'd have to
 	** loop all the way back up to the start of the while loop.
 	**
-	** The unformatted node is prepared and logged after the do_balance.
+	** The unformatted node must be dirtied later on.  We can't be
+	** sure here if the entire tail has been deleted yet.
         **
         ** p_s_un_bh is from the page cache (all unformatted nodes are
         ** from the page cache) and might be a highmem page.  So, we
@@ -1463,24 +1463,12 @@
 
         data = page_address(p_s_un_bh->b_page) ;
 	off = ((le_ih_k_offset (&s_ih) - 1) & (PAGE_CACHE_SIZE - 1));
-        block_off = off & (p_s_un_bh->b_size - 1) ;
 	memcpy(data + off,
 	       B_I_PITEM(PATH_PLAST_BUFFER(p_s_path), &s_ih), n_ret_value);
-
-	/* clear out the rest of the block past the end of the file. */
-	if (block_off + n_ret_value < p_s_un_bh->b_size) {
-	    memset(data + off + n_ret_value, 0, 
-		   p_s_un_bh->b_size - block_off - n_ret_value) ;
-	}
     }
 
     /* Perform balancing after all resources have been collected at once. */ 
     do_balance(&s_del_balance, NULL, NULL, M_DELETE);
-
-    /* see comment above for why this is after the do_balance */
-    if (p_s_un_bh) {
-        mark_buffer_dirty(p_s_un_bh) ;
-    }
 
     /* Return deleted body length */
     return n_ret_value;
diff -ur diff/linux/fs/reiserfs/tail_conversion.c linux/fs/reiserfs/tail_conversion.c
--- diff/linux/fs/reiserfs/tail_conversion.c	Mon Feb 19 13:07:32 2001
+++ linux/fs/reiserfs/tail_conversion.c	Sun Feb 25 19:42:54 2001
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
     struct super_block * sb = inode->i_sb;
     struct buffer_head *up_to_date_bh ;
     struct item_head * p_le_ih = PATH_PITEM_HEAD (path);
+    unsigned long total_tail = 0 ;
     struct cpu_key end_key;  /* Key to search for the last byte of the
 				converted item. */
     struct item_head ind_ih; /* new indirect item to be inserted or
@@ -121,10 +122,19 @@
 	n_retval = reiserfs_delete_item (th, path, &end_key, inode, 
 	                                 up_to_date_bh) ;
 
+	total_tail += n_retval ;
 	if (tail_size == n_retval)
 	    // done: file does not have direct items anymore
 	    break;
 
+    }
+    /* if we've copied bytes from disk into the page, we need to zero
+    ** out the unused part of the block (it was not up to date before)
+    ** the page is still kmapped (by whoever called reiserfs_get_block)
+    */
+    if (up_to_date_bh) {
+        unsigned pgoff = (tail_offset + total_tail - 1) & (PAGE_CACHE_SIZE - 1);
+	memset(page_address(unbh->b_page) + pgoff, 0, n_blk_size - total_tail) ;
     }
 
     inode->u.reiserfs_i.i_first_direct_byte = U32_MAX;