diff --git a/src/Composer/Command/CreateProjectCommand.php b/src/Composer/Command/CreateProjectCommand.php
index 7989c60d2..33cd46f0e 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Command/CreateProjectCommand.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Command/CreateProjectCommand.php
@@ -26,9 +26,9 @@ use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\InputArgument;
 use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\InputInterface;
 use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\InputOption;
 use Symfony\Component\Console\Output\OutputInterface;
-use Symfony\Component\Filesystem\Filesystem;
 use Symfony\Component\Finder\Finder;
 use Composer\Json\JsonFile;
+use Composer\Util\Filesystem;
 use Composer\Util\RemoteFilesystem;
 use Composer\Package\Version\VersionParser;
 
@@ -190,20 +190,24 @@ EOT
 
         if (!$keepVcs && (
             !$io->isInteractive() ||
-            $io->askConfirmation('<info>Do you want remove all previous VCS history ?</info> [<comment>yes</comment>]: ', true)
+            $io->askConfirmation('<info>Do you want to remove the exisitng VCS (.git, .svn..) history?</info> [<comment>Y,n</comment>]? ', true)
             )
         ) {
             $finder = new Finder();
-            $finder->in($directory)->ignoreVCS(false)->ignoreDotFiles(false);
+            $finder->directories()->in(getcwd())->ignoreVCS(false)->ignoreDotFiles(false);
             foreach (array('.svn', '_svn', 'CVS', '_darcs', '.arch-params', '.monotone', '.bzr', '.git', '.hg') as $vcsName) {
                 $finder->name($vcsName);
             }
 
-            $fs = new Filesystem();
             try {
-                $fs->remove($finder);
-            } catch (IOException $e) {
-                $io->write("<error>An error occured while removing the .git directory</error>");
+                $fs = new Filesystem();
+                foreach (iterator_to_array($finder) as $dir) {
+                    if (!$fs->removeDirectory($dir)) {
+                        throw new \RuntimeException('Could not remove '.$dir);
+                    }
+                }
+            } catch (\Exception $e) {
+                $io->write('<error>An error occured while removing the VCS metadata: '.$e->getMessage().'</error>');
             }
         }
     }
diff --git a/src/Composer/Downloader/GitDownloader.php b/src/Composer/Downloader/GitDownloader.php
index 750ff73bf..728e0ba5d 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Downloader/GitDownloader.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Downloader/GitDownloader.php
@@ -160,6 +160,7 @@ class GitDownloader extends VcsDownloader
     protected function updateToCommit($path, $reference, $branch, $date)
     {
         $template = 'git checkout %s && git reset --hard %1$s';
+        $branch = preg_replace('{(?:^dev-|(?:\.x)?-dev$)}i', '', $branch);
 
         // check whether non-commitish are branches or tags, and fetch branches with the remote name
         $gitRef = $reference;
@@ -167,11 +168,12 @@ class GitDownloader extends VcsDownloader
             && 0 === $this->process->execute('git branch -r', $output, $path)
             && preg_match('{^\s+composer/'.preg_quote($reference).'$}m', $output)
         ) {
-            $gitRef = 'composer/'.$reference;
+            $command = sprintf('git checkout -B %s %s && git reset --hard %2$s', escapeshellarg($branch), escapeshellarg('composer/'.$reference));
+            if (0 === $this->process->execute($command, $output, $path)) {
+                return;
+            }
         }
 
-        $branch = preg_replace('{(?:^dev-|(?:\.x)?-dev$)}i', '', $branch);
-
         // checkout branch by name if the current reference matches the tip of the branch
         if (preg_match('{^[a-f0-9]{40}$}', $reference)
             && 0 === $this->process->execute('git log '.escapeshellarg($branch).' -1 --format=format:%H', $output, $path)