diff --git a/dma-helpers.c b/dma-helpers.c
index 35cb500581..13593d1b42 100644
--- a/dma-helpers.c
+++ b/dma-helpers.c
@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@ void qemu_sglist_add(QEMUSGList *qsg, dma_addr_t base, dma_addr_t len)
 void qemu_sglist_destroy(QEMUSGList *qsg)
 {
     g_free(qsg->sg);
+    memset(qsg, 0, sizeof(*qsg));
 }
 
 typedef struct {
diff --git a/hw/ide/ahci.c b/hw/ide/ahci.c
index de580a6eff..5ea3cadb01 100644
--- a/hw/ide/ahci.c
+++ b/hw/ide/ahci.c
@@ -1073,6 +1073,9 @@ static int ahci_dma_rw_buf(IDEDMA *dma, int is_write)
         dma_buf_write(p, l, &s->sg);
     }
 
+    /* free sglist that was created in ahci_populate_sglist() */
+    qemu_sglist_destroy(&s->sg);
+
     /* update number of transferred bytes */
     ad->cur_cmd->status = cpu_to_le32(le32_to_cpu(ad->cur_cmd->status) + l);
     s->io_buffer_index += l;