diff --git a/Documentation/config.txt b/Documentation/config.txt
index 3188569..d31adb6 100644
--- a/Documentation/config.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config.txt
@@ -429,6 +429,11 @@
 index comparison to the filesystem data in parallel, allowing
 overlapping IO's.
 
+core.unreliableHardlinks::
+	Some filesystem drivers cannot properly handle hardlinking a file
+	and deleting the source right away.  In such a case, you need to
+	set this config variable to 'true'.
+
 alias.*::
 	Command aliases for the linkgit:git[1] command wrapper - e.g.
 	after defining "alias.last = cat-file commit HEAD", the invocation
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 6f602c7..5c8e83a 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -171,6 +171,10 @@
 # Define UNRELIABLE_FSTAT if your system's fstat does not return the same
 # information on a not yet closed file that lstat would return for the same
 # file after it was closed.
+#
+# Define UNRELIABLE_HARDLINKS if your operating systems has problems when
+# hardlinking a file to another name and unlinking the original file right
+# away (some NTFS drivers seem to zero the contents in that scenario).
 
 GIT-VERSION-FILE: .FORCE-GIT-VERSION-FILE
 	@$(SHELL_PATH) ./GIT-VERSION-GEN
@@ -835,6 +839,7 @@
 	NO_NSEC = YesPlease
 	USE_WIN32_MMAP = YesPlease
 	UNRELIABLE_FSTAT = UnfortunatelyYes
+	UNRELIABLE_HARDLINKS = UnfortunatelySometimes
 	COMPAT_CFLAGS += -D__USE_MINGW_ACCESS -DNOGDI -Icompat -Icompat/regex -Icompat/fnmatch
 	COMPAT_CFLAGS += -DSNPRINTF_SIZE_CORR=1
 	COMPAT_CFLAGS += -DSTRIP_EXTENSION=\".exe\"
@@ -1018,6 +1023,9 @@
 		COMPAT_OBJS += compat/win32mmap.o
 	endif
 endif
+ifdef UNRELIABLE_HARDLINKS
+	COMPAT_CFLAGS += -DUNRELIABLE_HARDLINKS=1
+endif
 ifdef NO_PREAD
 	COMPAT_CFLAGS += -DNO_PREAD
 	COMPAT_OBJS += compat/pread.o
diff --git a/cache.h b/cache.h
index ab1294d..ff9e145 100644
--- a/cache.h
+++ b/cache.h
@@ -554,6 +554,8 @@
 extern enum rebase_setup_type autorebase;
 extern enum push_default_type push_default;
 
+extern int unreliable_hardlinks;
+
 #define GIT_REPO_VERSION 0
 extern int repository_format_version;
 extern int check_repository_format(void);
diff --git a/config.c b/config.c
index 8c1ae59..1750cfb 100644
--- a/config.c
+++ b/config.c
@@ -495,6 +495,11 @@
 		return 0;
 	}
 
+	if (!strcmp(var, "core.unreliablehardlinks")) {
+		unreliable_hardlinks = git_config_bool(var, value);
+		return 0;
+	}
+
 	/* Add other config variables here and to Documentation/config.txt. */
 	return 0;
 }
diff --git a/environment.c b/environment.c
index 4696885..10578d2 100644
--- a/environment.c
+++ b/environment.c
@@ -43,6 +43,10 @@
 enum branch_track git_branch_track = BRANCH_TRACK_REMOTE;
 enum rebase_setup_type autorebase = AUTOREBASE_NEVER;
 enum push_default_type push_default = PUSH_DEFAULT_UNSPECIFIED;
+#ifndef UNRELIABLE_HARDLINKS
+#define UNRELIABLE_HARDLINKS 0
+#endif
+int unreliable_hardlinks = UNRELIABLE_HARDLINKS;
 
 /* Parallel index stat data preload? */
 int core_preload_index = 0;
diff --git a/sha1_file.c b/sha1_file.c
index 8fe135d..11969fc 100644
--- a/sha1_file.c
+++ b/sha1_file.c
@@ -2225,7 +2225,9 @@
 {
 	int ret = 0;
 
-	if (link(tmpfile, filename))
+	if (unreliable_hardlinks)
+		goto try_rename;
+	else if (link(tmpfile, filename))
 		ret = errno;
 
 	/*
@@ -2240,6 +2242,7 @@
 	 * left to unlink.
 	 */
 	if (ret && ret != EEXIST) {
+	try_rename:
 		if (!rename(tmpfile, filename))
 			goto out;
 		ret = errno;