diff --git a/test/create-sys-script.py b/test/create-sys-script.py
index 24a00f7a93..a4f1f302f6 100755
--- a/test/create-sys-script.py
+++ b/test/create-sys-script.py
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ OUTFILE_MODE = 0o775
 
 OUTFILE_FUNCS = r"""
 import os, sys
+import shutil
 
 def d(path, mode):
     os.mkdir(path, mode)
@@ -58,6 +59,8 @@ if not os.path.isdir(sys.argv[1]):
 
 os.chdir(sys.argv[1])
 
+if os.path.exists('sys'):
+    shutil.rmtree('sys')
 """
 
 
diff --git a/test/sys-script.py b/test/sys-script.py
index ac1369735b..2de7d7ea30 100755
--- a/test/sys-script.py
+++ b/test/sys-script.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 #
 
 import os, sys
+import shutil
 
 def d(path, mode):
     os.mkdir(path, mode)
@@ -40,6 +41,8 @@ if not os.path.isdir(sys.argv[1]):
 
 os.chdir(sys.argv[1])
 
+if os.path.exists('sys'):
+    shutil.rmtree('sys')
 d('sys', 0o755)
 d('sys/kernel', 0o775)
 f('sys/kernel/kexec_crash_loaded', 0o664, b'0\n')