diff --git a/tests/xfs/299 b/tests/xfs/299
index d2670f87..997c5dc0 100755
--- a/tests/xfs/299
+++ b/tests/xfs/299
@@ -203,9 +203,6 @@ cat $tmp.mkfs >>$seqres.full
 # keep the blocksize and data size for dd later
 . $tmp.mkfs
 
-# non-root users need to be able to write to this filesystem
-chmod 777 $SCRATCH_MNT
-
 cat >$tmp.projects <<EOF
 1:$SCRATCH_MNT
 EOF
@@ -220,6 +217,10 @@ projid_file="$tmp.projid"
 echo "*** user, group, and project"
 _qmount_option "uquota,gquota,pquota"
 _qmount
+
+# non-root users need to be able to write to this filesystem
+chmod 777 $SCRATCH_MNT
+
 _exercise p
 _exercise g
 _exercise u