diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/internal/storage/file/PackFile.java b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/internal/storage/file/PackFile.java
index e004f9090..d33148152 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/internal/storage/file/PackFile.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/internal/storage/file/PackFile.java
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@
 
 import java.io.EOFException;
 import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InterruptedIOException;
 import java.io.RandomAccessFile;
@@ -635,6 +636,12 @@ private void doOpen() throws IOException {
 			// don't invalidate the pack, we are interrupted from another thread
 			openFail(false);
 			throw e;
+		} catch (FileNotFoundException fn) {
+			// don't invalidate the pack if opening an existing file failed
+			// since it may be related to a temporary lack of resources (e.g.
+			// max open files)
+			openFail(!packFile.exists());
+			throw fn;
 		} catch (IOException ioe) {
 			openFail(true);
 			throw ioe;