diff --git a/fs/cifs/cifssmb.c b/fs/cifs/cifssmb.c
index 4c344fe7a152..bc09c998631f 100644
--- a/fs/cifs/cifssmb.c
+++ b/fs/cifs/cifssmb.c
@@ -2377,8 +2377,10 @@ winCreateHardLinkRetry:
 				     PATH_MAX, nls_codepage, remap);
 		name_len++;	/* trailing null */
 		name_len *= 2;
-		pSMB->OldFileName[name_len] = 0;	/* pad */
-		pSMB->OldFileName[name_len + 1] = 0x04;
+
+		/* protocol specifies ASCII buffer format (0x04) for unicode */
+		pSMB->OldFileName[name_len] = 0x04;
+		pSMB->OldFileName[name_len + 1] = 0x00; /* pad */
 		name_len2 =
 		    cifsConvertToUCS((__le16 *)&pSMB->OldFileName[name_len + 2],
 				     toName, PATH_MAX, nls_codepage, remap);