diff --git a/drivers/md/md.c b/drivers/md/md.c
index d7847014821a8b1d7821de812fb50008b2ad0cb7..528c1452ce54da6b610bc1aa112739e2250e61e0 100644
--- a/drivers/md/md.c
+++ b/drivers/md/md.c
@@ -1857,7 +1857,7 @@ static void super_1_sync(struct mddev *mddev, struct md_rdev *rdev)
 		max_dev = le32_to_cpu(sb->max_dev);
 
 	for (i=0; i<max_dev;i++)
-		sb->dev_roles[i] = cpu_to_le16(MD_DISK_ROLE_FAULTY);
+		sb->dev_roles[i] = cpu_to_le16(MD_DISK_ROLE_SPARE);
 
 	if (test_bit(MD_HAS_JOURNAL, &mddev->flags))
 		sb->feature_map |= cpu_to_le32(MD_FEATURE_JOURNAL);