diff --git a/inventory/inventory b/inventory/inventory
index 94cb482881..f1f52fb0a6 100644
--- a/inventory/inventory
+++ b/inventory/inventory
@@ -617,6 +617,10 @@ openqa-ppc64le-01.qa.fedoraproject.org
 openqa-ppc64le-01.qa.fedoraproject.org
 # openqa-aarch64-01.qa.fedoraproject.org
 # openqa-aarch64-02.qa.fedoraproject.org
+# this is a temporary workaround for #1539330 - as building the images
+# is causing the server to crash, we'll do even x86_64 on workers
+qa14.qa.fedoraproject.org
+qa09.qa.fedoraproject.org
 
 [packages]
 packages03.phx2.fedoraproject.org
diff --git a/roles/openqa/server/tasks/main.yml b/roles/openqa/server/tasks/main.yml
index 5b44bb454d..73af666461 100644
--- a/roles/openqa/server/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/roles/openqa/server/tasks/main.yml
@@ -167,10 +167,12 @@
 # are outdated, and 2 if any images are missing. We only want to handle
 # outright *missing* images here in the playbook (to handle the case of
 # first deployment). Outdated images are handled by the daily cron run.
-- name: Create hard disk images (this may take a long time!)
-  command: "/etc/cron.daily/createhdds"
-  when: "diskcheck.rc > 1"
-  ignore_errors: yes
+
+# disabled due to #1539330
+#- name: Create hard disk images (this may take a long time!)
+#  command: "/etc/cron.daily/createhdds"
+#  when: "diskcheck.rc > 1"
+#  ignore_errors: yes
 
 - name: Create exports file
   template: src=exports.j2 dest=/etc/exports.d/openqa.exports owner=root group=root mode=0644
diff --git a/roles/openqa/worker/tasks/createhdds.yml b/roles/openqa/worker/tasks/createhdds.yml
index 44addbb6fb..20a637999d 100644
--- a/roles/openqa/worker/tasks/createhdds.yml
+++ b/roles/openqa/worker/tasks/createhdds.yml
@@ -39,13 +39,8 @@
     repo: https://pagure.io/fedora-qa/createhdds.git
     dest: /root/createhdds
 
-#- name: Set up createhdds cron job
-#  copy: src=createhdds dest=/etc/cron.daily/createhdds owner=root group=root mode=0755
-
-# While #1539330 is a thing, we probably don't want these boxes
-# crashing every day...
-- name: Remove createhdds cron job (#1539330)
-  file: path=/etc/cron.daily/createhdds state=absent
+- name: Set up createhdds cron job
+  copy: src=createhdds dest=/etc/cron.daily/createhdds owner=root group=root mode=0755
 
 - name: Check if any hard disk images need (re)building
   command: "/root/createhdds/createhdds.py check"