diff --git a/source/lib/file/vfs/file_cache.cpp b/source/lib/file/vfs/file_cache.cpp
index a91ca6e917..d0f39aae3f 100644
--- a/source/lib/file/vfs/file_cache.cpp
+++ b/source/lib/file/vfs/file_cache.cpp
@@ -182,9 +182,11 @@ public:
 			{
 				shared_ptr<u8> discardedData; size_t discardedSize;
 				bool removed = m_cache.remove_least_valuable(&discardedData, &discardedSize);
-				// only false if cache is empty, which can't be the case because
-				// allocation failed.
-				ENSURE(removed);
+				// the cache is empty, and allocation still failed.
+				// apparently the cache is full of data that's still
+				// referenced, so we can't reserve any more space.
+				if(!removed)
+					return shared_ptr<u8>();
 			}
 		}
 	}
diff --git a/source/lib/file/vfs/vfs.cpp b/source/lib/file/vfs/vfs.cpp
index c69cbb95da..6f0a2af8a9 100644
--- a/source/lib/file/vfs/vfs.cpp
+++ b/source/lib/file/vfs/vfs.cpp
@@ -158,20 +158,22 @@ public:
 			// instead, callers should log the error, including pathname.
 			RETURN_STATUS_IF_ERR(vfs_Lookup(pathname, &m_rootDirectory, directory, &file));
 
+			fileContents = DummySharedPtr((u8*)0);
 			size = file->Size();
-			// safely handle zero-length files
-			if(!size)
-				fileContents = DummySharedPtr((u8*)0);
-			else if(size > m_cacheSize)
+			if(size != 0)	// (the file cache can't handle zero-length allocations)
 			{
-				RETURN_STATUS_IF_ERR(AllocateAligned(fileContents, size, maxSectorSize));
-				RETURN_STATUS_IF_ERR(file->Loader()->Load(file->Name(), fileContents, file->Size()));
-			}
-			else
-			{
-				fileContents = m_fileCache.Reserve(size);
-				RETURN_STATUS_IF_ERR(file->Loader()->Load(file->Name(), fileContents, file->Size()));
-				m_fileCache.Add(pathname, fileContents, size);
+				if(size < m_cacheSize/2)	// (avoid evicting lots of previous data)
+					fileContents = m_fileCache.Reserve(size);
+				if(fileContents)
+				{
+					RETURN_STATUS_IF_ERR(file->Loader()->Load(file->Name(), fileContents, file->Size()));
+					m_fileCache.Add(pathname, fileContents, size);
+				}
+				else
+				{
+					RETURN_STATUS_IF_ERR(AllocateAligned(fileContents, size, maxSectorSize));
+					RETURN_STATUS_IF_ERR(file->Loader()->Load(file->Name(), fileContents, file->Size()));
+				}
 			}
 		}