diff -urN fsarchiver-0.6.5-a/src/archwriter.c fsarchiver-0.6.5-b/src/archwriter.c
--- fsarchiver-0.6.5-a/src/archwriter.c	2010-01-07 19:16:54.000000000 +0000
+++ fsarchiver-0.6.5-b/src/archwriter.c	2010-01-21 18:40:37.000000000 +0000
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@
 {
     assert(ai);
     memset(ai, 0, sizeof(struct s_archwriter));
+    ai->newarch=false;
     ai->archfd=-1;
     ai->archid=0;
     ai->curvol=0;
@@ -85,6 +86,7 @@
     {   sysprintf ("cannot create archive %s\n", ai->volpath);
         return -1;
     }
+    ai->newarch=true;
     
     if (lockf(ai->archfd, F_LOCK, 0)!=0)
     {   sysprintf("Cannot lock archive file: %s\n", ai->volpath);
@@ -117,10 +119,14 @@
     assert(ai);
     
     if (ai->archfd >= 0)
+    {
         archwriter_close(ai);
-    
-    unlink(ai->basepath);
-    msgprintf(MSG_FORCE, "removing %s\n", ai->basepath);
+    }
+    if (ai->newarch==true)
+    {
+        unlink(ai->basepath);
+        msgprintf(MSG_FORCE, "removed %s\n", ai->basepath);
+    }
     return 0;
 }
 
diff -urN fsarchiver-0.6.5-a/src/archwriter.h fsarchiver-0.6.5-b/src/archwriter.h
--- fsarchiver-0.6.5-a/src/archwriter.h	2010-01-04 19:52:00.000000000 +0000
+++ fsarchiver-0.6.5-b/src/archwriter.h	2010-01-21 18:40:37.000000000 +0000
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@
 {   int    archfd; // file descriptor of the current volume (set to -1 when closed)
     u32    archid; // 32bit archive id for checking (random number generated at creation)
     u32    curvol; // current volume number, starts at 0, incremented when we change the volume
+    bool   newarch; // true when the archive has been created by then current process
     char   filefmt[FSA_MAX_FILEFMTLEN]; // file format of that archive
     char   creatver[FSA_MAX_PROGVERLEN]; // fsa version used to create archive
     char   label[FSA_MAX_LABELLEN]; // archive label defined by the user