diff --git a/src/bin/pg_upgrade/test.sh b/src/bin/pg_upgrade/test.sh
index fecc157bf0c345b96f2137ed275cac16b93bb8d4..85e303c3dcf716bfdd2870444f12cf902267c270 100644
--- a/src/bin/pg_upgrade/test.sh
+++ b/src/bin/pg_upgrade/test.sh
@@ -69,6 +69,8 @@ export PGHOST
 
 # don't rely on $PWD here, as old shells don't set it
 temp_root=`pwd`/tmp_check
+rm -rf "$temp_root"
+mkdir "$temp_root"
 
 : ${oldbindir=$bindir}
 
@@ -93,7 +95,6 @@ export PATH
 BASE_PGDATA="$temp_root/data"
 PGDATA="${BASE_PGDATA}.old"
 export PGDATA
-rm -rf "$BASE_PGDATA" "$PGDATA"
 
 logdir=`pwd`/log
 rm -rf "$logdir"
diff --git a/src/tools/msvc/vcregress.pl b/src/tools/msvc/vcregress.pl
index 30b86e7521f1c3534836b118325a4f773d252541..388c9d6d14031d99b9cf5074596f38ce63e7675b 100644
--- a/src/tools/msvc/vcregress.pl
+++ b/src/tools/msvc/vcregress.pl
@@ -546,7 +546,8 @@ sub upgradecheck
 	$ENV{PGHOST} = 'localhost';
 	$ENV{PGPORT} ||= 50432;
 	my $tmp_root = "$topdir/src/bin/pg_upgrade/tmp_check";
-	(mkdir $tmp_root || die $!) unless -d $tmp_root;
+	rmtree($tmp_root);
+	mkdir $tmp_root || die $!;
 	my $upg_tmp_install = "$tmp_root/install";    # unshared temp install
 	print "Setting up temp install\n\n";
 	Install($upg_tmp_install, "all", $config);
@@ -559,7 +560,8 @@ sub upgradecheck
 	my $data = "$tmp_root/data";
 	$ENV{PGDATA} = "$data.old";
 	my $logdir = "$topdir/src/bin/pg_upgrade/log";
-	(mkdir $logdir || die $!) unless -d $logdir;
+	rmtree($logdir);
+	mkdir $logdir || die $!;
 	print "\nRunning initdb on old cluster\n\n";
 	standard_initdb() or exit 1;
 	print "\nStarting old cluster\n\n";