diff --git a/drivers/md/md.c b/drivers/md/md.c
index 75a3f483522dab18ac7d0b1529d818ea958088a8..bec00b201a7328c3074950f807c52644ac6757e9 100644
--- a/drivers/md/md.c
+++ b/drivers/md/md.c
@@ -1370,6 +1370,11 @@ static int bind_rdev_to_array(mdk_rdev_t * rdev, mddev_t * mddev)
 		MD_BUG();
 		return -EINVAL;
 	}
+
+	/* prevent duplicates */
+	if (find_rdev(mddev, rdev->bdev->bd_dev))
+		return -EEXIST;
+
 	/* make sure rdev->size exceeds mddev->size */
 	if (rdev->size && (mddev->size == 0 || rdev->size < mddev->size)) {
 		if (mddev->pers) {