diff --git a/gix-fs/src/lib.rs b/gix-fs/src/lib.rs
index 187097573cb..9f77d8e8614 100644
--- a/gix-fs/src/lib.rs
+++ b/gix-fs/src/lib.rs
@@ -83,6 +83,18 @@ pub fn is_executable(metadata: &std::fs::Metadata) -> bool {
     (metadata.mode() & 0o100) != 0
 }
 
+/// Classifiers for IO-errors.
+pub mod io_err {
+    use std::io::ErrorKind;
+
+    /// Return `true` if `err` indicates that the entry doesn't exist on disk. `raw` is used as well
+    /// for additional checks while the variants are outside the MSRV.
+    pub fn is_not_found(err: ErrorKind, raw_err: Option<i32>) -> bool {
+        // TODO: use variant once MSRV is 1.83
+        err == ErrorKind::NotFound || raw_err == Some(20)
+    }
+}
+
 #[cfg(not(unix))]
 /// Returns whether a a file has the executable permission set.
 pub fn is_executable(_metadata: &std::fs::Metadata) -> bool {
diff --git a/gix-status/src/index_as_worktree/function.rs b/gix-status/src/index_as_worktree/function.rs
index 5dbf16715ac..8fb300abdb5 100644
--- a/gix-status/src/index_as_worktree/function.rs
+++ b/gix-status/src/index_as_worktree/function.rs
@@ -356,8 +356,10 @@ impl<'index> State<'_, 'index> {
     {
         let worktree_path = match self.path_stack.verified_path(gix_path::from_bstr(rela_path).as_ref()) {
             Ok(path) => path,
-            Err(err) if err.kind() == io::ErrorKind::NotFound => return Ok(Some(Change::Removed.into())),
-            Err(err) => return Err(Error::Io(err)),
+            Err(err) if gix_fs::io_err::is_not_found(err.kind(), err.raw_os_error()) => {
+                return Ok(Some(Change::Removed.into()))
+            }
+            Err(err) => return Err(err.into()),
         };
         self.symlink_metadata_calls.fetch_add(1, Ordering::Relaxed);
         let metadata = match gix_index::fs::Metadata::from_path_no_follow(worktree_path) {
@@ -379,7 +381,9 @@ impl<'index> State<'_, 'index> {
                 }
             }
             Ok(metadata) => metadata,
-            Err(err) if err.kind() == io::ErrorKind::NotFound => return Ok(Some(Change::Removed.into())),
+            Err(err) if gix_fs::io_err::is_not_found(err.kind(), err.raw_os_error()) => {
+                return Ok(Some(Change::Removed.into()))
+            }
             Err(err) => {
                 return Err(err.into());
             }
@@ -539,7 +543,7 @@ where
             // conversion to bstr can never fail because symlinks are only used
             // on unix (by git) so no reason to use the try version here
             let symlink_path =
-                gix_path::to_unix_separators_on_windows(gix_path::into_bstr(std::fs::read_link(self.path)?));
+                gix_path::to_unix_separators_on_windows(gix_path::into_bstr(std::fs::read_link(self.path).unwrap()));
             self.buf.extend_from_slice(&symlink_path);
             self.worktree_bytes.fetch_add(self.buf.len() as u64, Ordering::Relaxed);
             Stream {
diff --git a/gix-status/tests/fixtures/generated-archives/status_many.tar b/gix-status/tests/fixtures/generated-archives/status_many.tar
index 8e656859d8e..2f9698d3133 100644
Binary files a/gix-status/tests/fixtures/generated-archives/status_many.tar and b/gix-status/tests/fixtures/generated-archives/status_many.tar differ
diff --git a/gix-status/tests/fixtures/status_many.sh b/gix-status/tests/fixtures/status_many.sh
index 9a11f3f4f8d..e7a67475920 100755
--- a/gix-status/tests/fixtures/status_many.sh
+++ b/gix-status/tests/fixtures/status_many.sh
@@ -39,3 +39,16 @@ cp -R changed-and-untracked changed-and-untracked-and-renamed
   echo change >> content-with-rewrite
 
 )
+
+cp -R changed-and-untracked replace-dir-with-file
+(cd replace-dir-with-file
+  git checkout executable
+  rm untracked dir/untracked
+
+  mkdir dir/sub
+  touch dir/sub/nested
+  git add dir && git commit -m "add file in sub-directory"
+
+  rm -Rf dir/
+  touch dir
+)
diff --git a/gix-status/tests/status/index_as_worktree.rs b/gix-status/tests/status/index_as_worktree.rs
index 27a3a272c0b..dc4b357902e 100644
--- a/gix-status/tests/status/index_as_worktree.rs
+++ b/gix-status/tests/status/index_as_worktree.rs
@@ -243,6 +243,31 @@ fn removed() {
     );
 }
 
+#[test]
+fn replace_dir_with_file() {
+    let out = fixture_filtered_detailed(
+        "status_many",
+        "replace-dir-with-file",
+        &[],
+        &[
+            (BStr::new(b"dir/content"), 0, status_removed()),
+            (BStr::new(b"dir/content2"), 1, status_removed()),
+            (BStr::new(b"dir/sub/nested"), 2, status_removed()),
+        ],
+        |_| {},
+        false,
+    );
+    assert_eq!(
+        out,
+        Outcome {
+            entries_to_process: 5,
+            entries_processed: 5,
+            symlink_metadata_calls: if cfg!(windows) { 5 } else { 4 },
+            ..Default::default()
+        }
+    );
+}
+
 #[test]
 fn subomdule_nochange() {
     assert_eq!(