diff --git a/ext4/internal/compactext4/compact.go b/ext4/internal/compactext4/compact.go
index f2274fd4cf..57b265530d 100644
--- a/ext4/internal/compactext4/compact.go
+++ b/ext4/internal/compactext4/compact.go
@@ -945,7 +945,18 @@ func (w *Writer) writeDirectoryRecursive(dir, parent *inode) error {
 	if err := w.writeDirectory(dir, parent); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
-	for _, child := range dir.Children {
+
+	// Follow e2fsck's convention and sort the children by inode number.
+	var children []string
+	for name := range dir.Children {
+		children = append(children, name)
+	}
+	sort.Slice(children, func(i, j int) bool {
+		return dir.Children[children[i]].Number < dir.Children[children[j]].Number
+	})
+
+	for _, name := range children {
+		child := dir.Children[name]
 		if child.IsDir() {
 			if err := w.writeDirectoryRecursive(child, dir); err != nil {
 				return err