diff --git a/deploy/docker/prestart.sh b/deploy/docker/prestart.sh
index a8ddfdeb..655a8eec 100755
--- a/deploy/docker/prestart.sh
+++ b/deploy/docker/prestart.sh
@@ -6,8 +6,7 @@ ADMIN_PASSWORD=${ADMIN_PASSWORD:-$RANDOM_ADMIN_PASS}
 if [ X"$ENABLE_MIGRATIONS" = X"yes" ]; then
     echo "Running migrations service"
     python manage.py migrate
-    EXISTING_INSTALLATION=`echo "from users.models import User; print(User.objects.exists())" |python manage.py shell 2>/dev/null | tail -1`
-    if [ "$EXISTING_INSTALLATION" = "True" ]; then
+    if DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=cms.settings python -c "import django, sys; django.setup(); from users.models import User; sys.exit(0 if User.objects.exists() else 1)" 2>/dev/null; then
         echo "Loaddata has already run"
     else
         echo "Running loaddata and creating admin user"