Index: lucene/core/src/test/org/apache/lucene/index/TestIndexWriter.java
===================================================================
--- lucene/core/src/test/org/apache/lucene/index/TestIndexWriter.java	(revision 1464590)
+++ lucene/core/src/test/org/apache/lucene/index/TestIndexWriter.java	(working copy)
@@ -52,7 +52,9 @@
 import org.apache.lucene.search.ScoreDoc;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.TermQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.store.AlreadyClosedException;
+import org.apache.lucene.store.BaseDirectoryWrapper;
 import org.apache.lucene.store.Directory;
+import org.apache.lucene.store.IOContext;
 import org.apache.lucene.store.IndexOutput;
 import org.apache.lucene.store.Lock;
 import org.apache.lucene.store.LockFactory;
@@ -2115,5 +2117,51 @@
     }
     
   }
-  
+
+  public void testCorruptFirstCommit() throws Exception {
+    for(int i=0;i<6;i++) {
+      BaseDirectoryWrapper dir = newDirectory();
+      dir.createOutput("segments_0", IOContext.DEFAULT).close();
+      IndexWriterConfig iwc = newIndexWriterConfig(TEST_VERSION_CURRENT, new MockAnalyzer(random()));
+      int mode = i/2;
+      if (mode == 0) {
+        iwc.setOpenMode(OpenMode.CREATE);
+      } else if (mode == 1) {
+        iwc.setOpenMode(OpenMode.APPEND);
+      } else if (mode == 2) {
+        iwc.setOpenMode(OpenMode.CREATE_OR_APPEND);
+      }
+
+      if (VERBOSE) {
+        System.out.println("\nTEST: i=" + i);
+      }
+
+      try {
+        if ((i & 1) == 0) {
+          new IndexWriter(dir, iwc).close();
+        } else {
+          new IndexWriter(dir, iwc).rollback();
+        }
+        if (mode == 1) {
+          fail("expected exception");
+        }
+      } catch (IOException ioe) {
+        // OpenMode.APPEND should throw an exception since no
+        // index exists:
+        if (mode != 1) {
+          // Unexpected
+          throw ioe;
+        }
+      }
+
+      if (VERBOSE) {
+        System.out.println("  at close: " + Arrays.toString(dir.listAll()));
+      }
+
+      if (mode == 1) {
+        dir.setCheckIndexOnClose(false);
+      }
+      dir.close();
+    }
+  }
 }
Index: lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/IndexWriter.java
===================================================================
--- lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/IndexWriter.java	(revision 1464590)
+++ lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/IndexWriter.java	(working copy)
@@ -651,6 +651,8 @@
       // IndexFormatTooOldException.
       segmentInfos = new SegmentInfos();
 
+      boolean loadInitialCommit;
+
       if (create) {
         // Try to read first.  This is to allow create
         // against an index that's currently open for
@@ -659,8 +661,10 @@
         try {
           segmentInfos.read(directory);
           segmentInfos.clear();
+          loadInitialCommit = true;
         } catch (IOException e) {
           // Likely this means it's a fresh directory
+          loadInitialCommit = false;
         }
 
         // Record that we have a change (zero out all
@@ -668,6 +672,7 @@
         changeCount++;
         segmentInfos.changed();
       } else {
+        loadInitialCommit = true;
         segmentInfos.read(directory);
 
         IndexCommit commit = config.getIndexCommit();
@@ -701,7 +706,8 @@
       synchronized(this) {
         deleter = new IndexFileDeleter(directory,
                                        config.getIndexDeletionPolicy(),
-                                       segmentInfos, infoStream, this);
+                                       segmentInfos, infoStream, this,
+                                       loadInitialCommit);
       }
 
       if (deleter.startingCommitDeleted) {
Index: lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/IndexFileDeleter.java
===================================================================
--- lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/IndexFileDeleter.java	(revision 1464590)
+++ lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/IndexFileDeleter.java	(working copy)
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@
    * @throws IOException if there is a low-level IO error
    */
   public IndexFileDeleter(Directory directory, IndexDeletionPolicy policy, SegmentInfos segmentInfos,
-                          InfoStream infoStream, IndexWriter writer) throws IOException {
+                          InfoStream infoStream, IndexWriter writer, boolean loadInitialCommit) throws IOException {
     this.infoStream = infoStream;
     this.writer = writer;
 
@@ -209,7 +209,7 @@
       }
     }
 
-    if (currentCommitPoint == null && currentSegmentsFile != null) {
+    if (currentCommitPoint == null && currentSegmentsFile != null && loadInitialCommit) {
       // We did not in fact see the segments_N file
       // corresponding to the segmentInfos that was passed
       // in.  Yet, it must exist, because our caller holds
@@ -221,7 +221,7 @@
       try {
         sis.read(directory, currentSegmentsFile);
       } catch (IOException e) {
-        throw new CorruptIndexException("failed to locate current segments_N file");
+        throw new CorruptIndexException("failed to locate current segments_N file \"" + currentSegmentsFile + "\"");
       }
       if (infoStream.isEnabled("IFD")) {
         infoStream.message("IFD", "forced open of current segments file " + segmentInfos.getSegmentsFileName());