diff --git a/icu4c/source/test/intltest/intltest.cpp b/icu4c/source/test/intltest/intltest.cpp
index 68ae1749a8..e39a2a0e23 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/test/intltest/intltest.cpp
+++ b/icu4c/source/test/intltest/intltest.cpp
@@ -1345,22 +1345,20 @@ const char *  IntlTest::pathToDataDirectory()
         strcpy(p, __FILE__);
         /* We want to back over three '\' chars.                            */
         /*   Only Windows should end up here, so looking for '\' is safe.   */
-        if (strrchr(p, U_FILE_SEP_CHAR) != NULL) {
-            for (i=1; i<=3; i++) {
-                pBackSlash = strrchr(p, U_FILE_SEP_CHAR);
-                if (pBackSlash != NULL) {
-                    *pBackSlash = 0;        /* Truncate the string at the '\'   */
-                }
-            }
-
+        for (i=1; i<=3; i++) {
+            pBackSlash = strrchr(p, U_FILE_SEP_CHAR);
             if (pBackSlash != NULL) {
-                /* We found and truncated three names from the path.
-                *  Now append "source\data" and set the environment
-                */
-                strcpy(pBackSlash, U_FILE_SEP_STRING "data" U_FILE_SEP_STRING );
-                fgDataDir = p;
+                *pBackSlash = 0;        /* Truncate the string at the '\'   */
             }
         }
+
+        if (pBackSlash != NULL) {
+            /* We found and truncated three names from the path.
+            *  Now append "source\data" and set the environment
+            */
+            strcpy(pBackSlash, U_FILE_SEP_STRING "data" U_FILE_SEP_STRING );
+            fgDataDir = p;
+        }
         else {
             /* __FILE__ on MSVC7 does not contain the directory */
             fgDataDir = ".."U_FILE_SEP_STRING".."U_FILE_SEP_STRING "data" U_FILE_SEP_STRING;