Index: hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/io/HalfStoreFileReader.java =================================================================== --- hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/io/HalfStoreFileReader.java (revision 1588026) +++ hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/io/HalfStoreFileReader.java (working copy) @@ -297,10 +297,6 @@ public boolean seekBefore(Cell key) throws IOException { if (top) { Cell fk = new KeyValue.KeyOnlyKeyValue(getFirstKey(), 0, getFirstKey().length); - // This will be null when the file is empty in which we can not - // seekBefore to any key - if (fk == null) - return false; if (getComparator().compareOnlyKeyPortion(key, fk) <= 0) { return false; }