diff --git a/scripts/install-nix-from-closure.sh b/scripts/install-nix-from-closure.sh
index 465cc1013..bef5cd4f1 100644
--- a/scripts/install-nix-from-closure.sh
+++ b/scripts/install-nix-from-closure.sh
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ if ! [ -e $dest ]; then
 fi
 
 if ! [ -w $dest ]; then
-    echo "$0: directory $dest exists, but is not writable by you; please run ‘chown -R $USER $dest’ as root" >&2
+    echo "$0: directory $dest exists, but is not writable by you. This could indicate that another user has already performed a single-user installation of Nix on this system. If you wish to enable multi-user support see http://nixos.org/nix/manual/#ssec-multi-user. If you wish to continue with a single-user install for $USER please run ‘chown -R $USER $dest’ as root." >&2
     exit 1
 fi