diff --git a/qemu-img.c b/qemu-img.c
index b41e670..d9434ad 100644
--- a/qemu-img.c
+++ b/qemu-img.c
@@ -340,7 +340,12 @@ static int img_create(int argc, char **argv)
         int64_t sval;
         char *end;
         sval = strtosz_suffix(argv[optind++], &end, STRTOSZ_DEFSUFFIX_B);
-        if (sval < 0 || *end) {
+        if (sval < 0) {
+            error_report("Image size must be less than 8 exabytes!");
+            ret = -1;
+            goto out;
+        }
+        if (*end) {
             error_report("Invalid image size specified! You may use k, M, G or "
                   "T suffixes for ");
             error_report("kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes and terabytes.");