diff --git a/.htaccess b/.htaccess
index d6a43797..3050e2e7 100644
--- a/.htaccess
+++ b/.htaccess
@@ -17,8 +17,8 @@
 	# rather than link to images/ha/hash and have an ugly filename,
 	# we link to images/hash/tags.ext; mod_rewrite splits things so
 	# that shimmie sees hash and the user sees tags.ext
-	RewriteRule ^_images/([0-9a-f]{2})([0-9a-f]{30}).*$  images/$1/$1$2 [L]
-	RewriteRule ^_thumbs/([0-9a-f]{2})([0-9a-f]{30}).*$  thumbs/$1/$1$2 [L]
+	RewriteRule ^_images/([0-9a-f]{2})([0-9a-f]{30}).*$  data/images/$1/$1$2 [L]
+	RewriteRule ^_thumbs/([0-9a-f]{2})([0-9a-f]{30}).*$  data/thumbs/$1/$1$2 [L]
 
 	# any requests for files which don't physically exist should be handled by index.php
 	RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
diff --git a/core/_install.php b/core/_install.php
index d8971fc0..e7a07243 100644
--- a/core/_install.php
+++ b/core/_install.php
@@ -360,29 +360,22 @@ function insert_defaults() { // {{{
 function build_dirs() { // {{{
 	// *try* and make default dirs. Ignore any errors --
 	// if something is amiss, we'll tell the user later
-	if(!file_exists("images")) @mkdir("images");
-	if(!file_exists("thumbs")) @mkdir("thumbs");
-	if(!file_exists("data")  ) @mkdir("data");
-	if(!is_writable("images")) @chmod("images", 0755);
-	if(!is_writable("thumbs")) @chmod("thumbs", 0755);
-	if(!is_writable("data")  ) @chmod("data", 0755);
+	if(!file_exists("data")) @mkdir("data");
+	if(!is_writable("data")) @chmod("data", 0755);
 
 	// Clear file status cache before checking again.
 	clearstatcache();
 
-	if(
-		!file_exists("images") || !file_exists("thumbs") || !file_exists("data") ||
-		!is_writable("images") || !is_writable("thumbs") || !is_writable("data")
-	) {
+	if(!file_exists("data") || !is_writable("data")) {
 		print "
 		<div id='installer'>
 			<h1>Shimmie Installer</h1>
 			<h3>Directory Permissions Error:</h3>
 			<div class='container'>
-				<p>Shimmie needs to make three folders in it's directory, '<i>images</i>', '<i>thumbs</i>', and '<i>data</i>', and they need to be writable by the PHP user.</p>
-				<p>If you see this error, if probably means the folders are owned by you, and they need to be writable by the web server.</p>
+				<p>Shimmie needs to have a 'data' folder in its directory, writable by the PHP user.</p>
+				<p>If you see this error, if probably means the folder is owned by you, and it needs to be writable by the web server.</p>
 				<p>PHP reports that it is currently running as user: ".$_ENV["USER"]." (". $_SERVER["USER"] .")</p>
-				<p>Once you have created these folders and / or changed the ownership of the shimmie folder, hit 'refresh' to continue.</p>
+				<p>Once you have created this folder and / or changed the ownership of the shimmie folder, hit 'refresh' to continue.</p>
 				<br/><br/>
 			</div>
 		</div>
diff --git a/core/util.php b/core/util.php
index d611aa88..cd06b8d9 100644
--- a/core/util.php
+++ b/core/util.php
@@ -182,10 +182,10 @@ function warehouse_path(string $base, string $hash, bool $create=true): string {
 	$ab = substr($hash, 0, 2);
 	$cd = substr($hash, 2, 2);
 	if(WH_SPLITS == 2) {
-		$pa = $base.'/'.$ab.'/'.$cd.'/'.$hash;
+		$pa = 'data/'.$base.'/'.$ab.'/'.$cd.'/'.$hash;
 	}
 	else {
-		$pa = $base.'/'.$ab.'/'.$hash;
+		$pa = 'data/'.$base.'/'.$ab.'/'.$hash;
 	}
 	if($create && !file_exists(dirname($pa))) mkdir(dirname($pa), 0755, true);
 	return $pa;
diff --git a/index.php b/index.php
index b944e3eb..4aedff09 100644
--- a/index.php
+++ b/index.php
@@ -48,6 +48,10 @@ if(!file_exists("data/config/shimmie.conf.php")) {
 	exit;
 }
 
+if(file_exists("images") && !file_exists("data/images")) {
+	die("As of Shimmie 2.7 images and thumbs should be moved to data/images and data/thumbs");
+}
+
 if(!file_exists("vendor/")) {
 	//CHECK: Should we just point to install.php instead? Seems unsafe though.
 	print <<<EOD