diff --git a/dbtests/dbtests.cpp b/dbtests/dbtests.cpp
index 4ce568510ea..3069ad21b31 100644
--- a/dbtests/dbtests.cpp
+++ b/dbtests/dbtests.cpp
@@ -22,5 +22,5 @@
 #include "dbtests.h"
 
 int main( int argc, char** argv ) {
-    return Suite::run(argc, argv, "/tmp/unittest/");
+    return Suite::run(argc, argv, "/tmp/unittest");
 }
diff --git a/dbtests/framework.cpp b/dbtests/framework.cpp
index 7b35921de07..05f3719d978 100644
--- a/dbtests/framework.cpp
+++ b/dbtests/framework.cpp
@@ -162,17 +162,22 @@ namespace mongo {
 
             boost::filesystem::path p(dbpathSpec);
 
-            /* try removing and recreating the directory
-             *
-             * we let this fail because some of the test machines have
-             * special setups for /tmp/unittest/ which we don't want
-             * to destroy. */
-            try {
-                if (boost::filesystem::exists(p)) {
-                    boost::filesystem::remove_all(p);
+            /* remove the contents of the test directory if it exists. */
+            if (boost::filesystem::exists(p)) {
+                /* TODO maybe should check for symlinks to regular files too */
+                if (boost::filesystem::is_regular_file(p)) {
+                    cout << "ERROR: path \"" << p << "\" is not a directory" << endl << endl;
+                    show_help_text(argv[0], shell_options);
+                    return EXIT_BADOPTIONS;
                 }
+                boost::filesystem::directory_iterator end_iter;
+                for (boost::filesystem::directory_iterator dir_iter(p);
+                     dir_iter != end_iter; ++dir_iter) {
+                    boost::filesystem::remove_all(dir_iter->path());
+                }
+            } else {
                 boost::filesystem::create_directory(p);
-            } catch (std::runtime_error &e) {}
+            }
 
             string dbpathString = p.native_directory_string();
             dbpath = dbpathString.c_str();
diff --git a/dbtests/perf/perftest.cpp b/dbtests/perf/perftest.cpp
index dc2fe358cdc..6fe9d6aacfb 100644
--- a/dbtests/perf/perftest.cpp
+++ b/dbtests/perf/perftest.cpp
@@ -691,5 +691,5 @@ int main( int argc, char **argv ) {
     logLevel = -1;
     client_ = new DBDirectClient();
 
-    return Suite::run(argc, argv, "/data/db/perftest/");
+    return Suite::run(argc, argv, "/data/db/perftest");
 }