diff --git a/src/test/java/com/github/sparsick/testcontainers/gitserver/GitServerContainerTest.java b/src/test/java/com/github/sparsick/testcontainers/gitserver/GitServerContainerTest.java
index c80724a..d6389df 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/github/sparsick/testcontainers/gitserver/GitServerContainerTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/github/sparsick/testcontainers/gitserver/GitServerContainerTest.java
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 import com.jcraft.jsch.JSchException;
 import com.jcraft.jsch.Session;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.api.Git;
+import org.eclipse.jgit.api.errors.GitAPIException;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.transport.SshTransport;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.transport.ssh.jsch.JschConfigSessionFactory;
 import org.eclipse.jgit.transport.ssh.jsch.OpenSshConfig;
@@ -14,10 +15,13 @@
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.io.TempDir;
 import org.junit.jupiter.params.ParameterizedTest;
 import org.junit.jupiter.params.provider.EnumSource;
+import org.testcontainers.shaded.org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;
 import org.testcontainers.utility.DockerImageName;
 
 import java.io.File;
+import java.io.IOException;
 import java.net.URI;
+import java.nio.file.Path;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 
@@ -32,6 +36,7 @@ public class GitServerContainerTest {
     @TempDir(cleanup = CleanupMode.NEVER)
     private File tempDir;
 
+
     @Test
     void validDockerImageName() {
         assertThatNoException().isThrownBy(() ->
@@ -94,8 +99,16 @@ void gitRepoURI() {
     }
 
     @Test
-    void copyExistingGitRepo() {
-        var containerUnderTest = new GitServerContainer(LATEST_GIT_SERVER_VERSION).withCopyExistingGitRepoToContainer("src/test/resources/existingRepo");
+    void copyExistingGitRepo(@TempDir File sampleRepo) throws GitAPIException, IOException {
+        FileUtils.copyFileToDirectory(new File("src/test/resources/sampleRepo/testFile"), sampleRepo);
+
+        Git repo = Git.init().setDirectory(sampleRepo).setInitialBranch("main").call();
+        repo.add().addFilepattern("testFile").call();
+        repo.commit().setAuthor("Sandra Parsick", "sample@example.com").setMessage("init").call();
+
+        var containerUnderTest = new GitServerContainer(LATEST_GIT_SERVER_VERSION)
+                .withCopyExistingGitRepoToContainer(sampleRepo.getAbsolutePath());
+
         containerUnderTest.start();
 
         URI gitRepoURI = containerUnderTest.getGitRepoURIAsSSH();
@@ -122,10 +135,16 @@ protected void configure(OpenSshConfig.Host hc, Session session) {
     }
 
     @Test
-    void copyExistingGitRepoWithCustomRepoName() {
+    void copyExistingGitRepoWithCustomRepoName(@TempDir File sampleRepo) throws IOException, GitAPIException {
+        FileUtils.copyFileToDirectory(new File("src/test/resources/sampleRepo/testFile"), sampleRepo);
+
+        Git repo = Git.init().setDirectory(sampleRepo).call();
+        repo.add().addFilepattern("testFile").call();
+        repo.commit().setAuthor("Sandra Parsick", "sample@example.com").setMessage("init").call();
+
         var containerUnderTest = new GitServerContainer(LATEST_GIT_SERVER_VERSION)
                 .withGitRepo("customRepoName")
-                .withCopyExistingGitRepoToContainer("src/test/resources/existingRepo");
+                .withCopyExistingGitRepoToContainer(sampleRepo.getAbsolutePath());
         containerUnderTest.start();
 
         URI gitRepoURI = containerUnderTest.getGitRepoURIAsSSH();
diff --git a/src/test/resources/existingRepo b/src/test/resources/existingRepo
deleted file mode 160000
index cce45a5..0000000
--- a/src/test/resources/existingRepo
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Subproject commit cce45a551767e3d6e19f5f7db83a9f33f4a9a317
diff --git a/src/test/resources/sampleRepo/testFile b/src/test/resources/sampleRepo/testFile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29