diff --git a/cros_generate_stateful_update_payload.py b/cros_generate_stateful_update_payload.py
index b8bc1eb65e..a2c170a84e 100755
--- a/cros_generate_stateful_update_payload.py
+++ b/cros_generate_stateful_update_payload.py
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ def GenerateStatefulPayload(image_path, output_directory, logger):
                              '-czf',
                              output_gz,
                              '--directory=%s' % stateful_dir,
+                             '--hard-dereference',
                              '--transform=s,^dev_image,dev_image_new,',
                              '--transform=s,^var,var_new,',
                              'dev_image',