diff --git a/stack_orchestrator/deploy/deployment_create.py b/stack_orchestrator/deploy/deployment_create.py
index 725bf21f..b03b12ca 100644
--- a/stack_orchestrator/deploy/deployment_create.py
+++ b/stack_orchestrator/deploy/deployment_create.py
@@ -272,7 +272,19 @@ def call_stack_deploy_start(deployment_context):
     create additional k8s resources (Services, etc.) in the deployment namespace.
     The namespace can be derived as f"laconic-{deployment_context.id}".
     """
-    python_file_paths = _commands_plugin_paths(deployment_context.stack.name)
+    try:
+        python_file_paths = _commands_plugin_paths(deployment_context.stack.name)
+    except SystemExit:
+        # Stack path may not resolve from current cwd (e.g. during restart
+        # when cwd isn't the repo root). get_parsed_stack_config calls
+        # error_exit (sys.exit) when the stack directory doesn't exist.
+        # Most stacks don't have deploy hooks, so this is non-fatal.
+        if opts.o.debug:
+            print(
+                f"Could not resolve plugin paths for stack"
+                f" {deployment_context.stack.name}, skipping hooks"
+            )
+        return
     for python_file_path in python_file_paths:
         if python_file_path.exists():
             spec = util.spec_from_file_location("commands", python_file_path)
diff --git a/stack_orchestrator/deploy/k8s/cluster_info.py b/stack_orchestrator/deploy/k8s/cluster_info.py
index 6890b430..5289e814 100644
--- a/stack_orchestrator/deploy/k8s/cluster_info.py
+++ b/stack_orchestrator/deploy/k8s/cluster_info.py
@@ -696,9 +696,15 @@ class ClusterInfo:
         return name
 
     def _pod_has_pvcs(self, parsed_pod_file: Any) -> bool:
-        """Check if a parsed compose file declares named volumes (PVCs)."""
+        """Check if a parsed compose file declares volumes that become PVCs.
+
+        Excludes volumes that are ConfigMaps (declared in spec.configmaps),
+        since those don't require Recreate strategy.
+        """
         volumes = parsed_pod_file.get("volumes", {})
-        return len(volumes) > 0
+        configmaps = set(self.spec.get_configmaps().keys())
+        pvc_volumes = [v for v in volumes if v not in configmaps]
+        return len(pvc_volumes) > 0
 
     def _build_common_pod_metadata(self, services: dict) -> tuple:
         """Build shared annotations, labels, affinity, tolerations for pods.