diff --git a/pisi/archive.py b/pisi/archive.py
index 1045511a..2b81c00b 100644
--- a/pisi/archive.py
+++ b/pisi/archive.py
@@ -112,7 +112,8 @@ class ArchiveTar(ArchiveBase):
             # 
             # Also, tar.extract() doesn't write on symlinks... Not any
             # more :).
-            if self.file_path == install_tar_path and os.path.exists(tarinfo.name):
+            if self.file_path == install_tar_path and os.path.exists(tarinfo.name) \
+                    and not os.path.isdir(tarinfo.name):
                 os.unlink(tarinfo.name)
             self.tar.extract(tarinfo)