diff --git a/backup-one-task b/backup-one-task
index 7272061e1e8e1da9aaf2b50b68fdf25724caaa25..2b11f6e18eec9340e1c74a497df04116fbd7bf67 100755
--- a/backup-one-task
+++ b/backup-one-task
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ retry=0
 new=0
 only_prune=0
 only_clone=0
+first_run=0
 
 ss=/opt/LYSrdiff/bin/lysrdiff-set-status.py
 
@@ -80,6 +81,10 @@ origin="$base"/origin
 rdiffdir="$files/rdiff-backup-data"
 incrementsdir="$rdiffdir/increments"
 
+if [ ! -d "$files" ]
+then
+    first_run=1
+fi
 mkdir -p "$files"
 mkdir "$lockdir" || exit 1
 
@@ -139,7 +144,7 @@ then
 	AGE=`cat "$age"`
     fi
 
-    if [ -d "$files" ]
+    if [ $first_run = 1 ]
     then
 	echo -ne "${CLR}${msg}: removing increments older than $AGE"
 	$ss --status $disk $part "${msg}: removing increments older than $AGE"
@@ -150,6 +155,8 @@ then
             --force \
             -v 2 \
             "$files" > "$rdiffcleanlogfile" 2>&1
+    else
+	touch "$rdiffcleanlogfile"
     fi
 fi