diff --git a/modules/system/system.install b/modules/system/system.install
index e4223a9f83f01b67348ddc0039ba4c2fbef887d2..72b631a6ef91a1aa59e09a1b3e97fdb284a532a0 100644
--- a/modules/system/system.install
+++ b/modules/system/system.install
@@ -485,10 +485,7 @@ function system_install() {
         totalcount bigint unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
         daycount mediumint unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
         timestamp int unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
-        PRIMARY KEY (nid),
-        KEY totalcount (totalcount),
-        KEY daycount (daycount),
-        KEY timestamp (timestamp)
+        PRIMARY KEY (nid)
       ) /*!40100 DEFAULT CHARACTER SET UTF8 */ ");
 
       db_query("CREATE TABLE {system} (
@@ -976,9 +973,6 @@ function system_install() {
         timestamp int_unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
         PRIMARY KEY (nid)
       )");
-      db_query("CREATE INDEX {node_counter}_totalcount_idx ON {node_counter} (totalcount)");
-      db_query("CREATE INDEX {node_counter}_daycount_idx ON {node_counter} (daycount)");
-      db_query("CREATE INDEX {node_counter}_timestamp_idx ON {node_counter} (timestamp)");
 
       db_query("CREATE TABLE {system} (
         filename varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
@@ -3708,6 +3702,27 @@ function system_update_2005() {
   return $ret;
 }
 
+/**
+ * Drop useless indices on node_counter table.
+ */
+function system_update_2006() {
+  $ret = array();
+  switch ($GLOBALS['db_type']) {
+    case 'pgsql':
+      $ret[] = update_sql('DROP INDEX {node_counter}_daycount_idx');
+      $ret[] = update_sql('DROP INDEX {node_counter}_totalcount_idx');
+      $ret[] = update_sql('DROP INDEX {node_counter}_timestamp_idx');
+      break;
+    case 'mysql':
+    case 'mysqli':
+      $ret[] = update_sql("ALTER TABLE {node_counter} DROP INDEX daycount");
+      $ret[] = update_sql("ALTER TABLE {node_counter} DROP INDEX totalcount");
+      $ret[] = update_sql("ALTER TABLE {node_counter} DROP INDEX timestamp");
+      break;
+  }
+  return $ret;
+}
+
 /**
  * @} End of "defgroup updates-5.0-to-x.x"
  * The next series of updates should start at 3000.