diff --git a/start-db.sh b/start-db.sh
index c4fe4b3..b68dc13 100755
--- a/start-db.sh
+++ b/start-db.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,10 @@
 #!/bin/sh
+if [ -f data/db/postmaster.pid ]
+then
+  echo "already started"
+  exit
+fi
+
 INIT=0
 if [ ! -d data/db ]
 then
@@ -6,7 +12,9 @@ then
   initdb --locale=C -E UTF-8 data/db
   INIT=1
 fi
+
 pg_ctl -D data/db -l data/db.log start
+
 if [ "$INIT" == "1" ]
 then
   sleep 2