diff --git a/haiku_rag_slim/haiku/rag/store/engine.py b/haiku_rag_slim/haiku/rag/store/engine.py
index f57dc94d..f4204efe 100644
--- a/haiku_rag_slim/haiku/rag/store/engine.py
+++ b/haiku_rag_slim/haiku/rag/store/engine.py
@@ -586,11 +586,12 @@ class Store:
             ReadOnlyError: If the store is in read-only mode.
         """
         self._assert_writable()
-        # Drop and recreate chunks table
-        try:
+        # Drop and recreate chunks table. Check existence first rather than
+        # catching-and-swallowing drop_table's errors — a catch-all would
+        # hide real failures (permissions, storage-backend errors) and then
+        # the subsequent create_table would fail confusingly.
+        if "chunks" in await self.db.table_names():
             await self.db.drop_table("chunks")
-        except Exception:
-            pass
 
         # Update the ChunkRecord model with new vector dimension
         self.ChunkRecord = create_chunk_model(self.embedder._vector_dim)