diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_hotplug.c b/src/qemu/qemu_hotplug.c
index 4558a3c02dcb9a87735a00f99a7b991cff5372a1..ccf3336633d41075e3325299c131b25eae330faa 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_hotplug.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_hotplug.c
@@ -781,6 +781,7 @@ qemuDomainAttachDiskGeneric(virQEMUDriverPtr driver,
     qemuDomainObjPrivatePtr priv = vm->privateData;
     qemuHotplugDiskSourceDataPtr diskdata = NULL;
     char *devstr = NULL;
+    virQEMUDriverConfigPtr cfg = virQEMUDriverGetConfig(driver);
 
     if (qemuHotplugPrepareDiskAccess(driver, vm, disk, NULL, false) < 0)
         goto cleanup;
@@ -788,6 +789,9 @@ qemuDomainAttachDiskGeneric(virQEMUDriverPtr driver,
     if (qemuAssignDeviceDiskAlias(vm->def, disk, priv->qemuCaps) < 0)
         goto error;
 
+    if (qemuDomainPrepareDiskSource(disk, priv, cfg) < 0)
+        goto error;
+
     if (!(diskdata = qemuHotplugDiskSourceAttachPrepare(disk, priv->qemuCaps)))
         goto error;
 
@@ -822,6 +826,7 @@ qemuDomainAttachDiskGeneric(virQEMUDriverPtr driver,
     qemuHotplugDiskSourceDataFree(diskdata);
     qemuDomainSecretDiskDestroy(disk);
     VIR_FREE(devstr);
+    virObjectUnref(cfg);
     return ret;
 
  exit_monitor:
@@ -1062,8 +1067,6 @@ qemuDomainAttachDeviceDiskLive(virQEMUDriverPtr driver,
                                bool forceMediaChange)
 {
     size_t i;
-    virQEMUDriverConfigPtr cfg = virQEMUDriverGetConfig(driver);
-    qemuDomainObjPrivatePtr priv = vm->privateData;
     virDomainDiskDefPtr disk = dev->data.disk;
     virDomainDiskDefPtr orig_disk = NULL;
     int ret = -1;
@@ -1080,9 +1083,6 @@ qemuDomainAttachDeviceDiskLive(virQEMUDriverPtr driver,
     if (qemuDomainDetermineDiskChain(driver, vm, disk, true) < 0)
         goto cleanup;
 
-    if (qemuDomainPrepareDiskSource(disk, priv, cfg) < 0)
-        goto cleanup;
-
     switch ((virDomainDiskDevice) disk->device)  {
     case VIR_DOMAIN_DISK_DEVICE_CDROM:
     case VIR_DOMAIN_DISK_DEVICE_FLOPPY:
@@ -1153,7 +1153,6 @@ qemuDomainAttachDeviceDiskLive(virQEMUDriverPtr driver,
  cleanup:
     if (ret != 0)
         ignore_value(qemuRemoveSharedDevice(driver, dev, vm->def->name));
-    virObjectUnref(cfg);
     return ret;
 }