diff --git a/fs/bcachefs/recovery.c b/fs/bcachefs/recovery.c
index f00e327d4d35..ddfba16a2998 100644
--- a/fs/bcachefs/recovery.c
+++ b/fs/bcachefs/recovery.c
@@ -214,6 +214,11 @@ int bch2_fs_recovery(struct bch_fs *c)
 
 	set_bit(BCH_FS_ALLOC_READ_DONE, &c->flags);
 
+	err = "cannot allocate memory";
+	ret = bch2_fs_ec_start(c);
+	if (ret)
+		goto err;
+
 	bch_verbose(c, "starting mark and sweep:");
 	err = "error in recovery";
 	ret = bch2_initial_gc(c, &journal);
@@ -274,11 +279,6 @@ int bch2_fs_recovery(struct bch_fs *c)
 		bch_verbose(c, "quotas done");
 	}
 
-	err = "cannot allocate memory";
-	ret = bch2_fs_ec_start(c);
-	if (ret)
-		goto err;
-
 out:
 	bch2_journal_entries_free(&journal);
 	kfree(clean);