diff --git a/db/db_impl.cc b/db/db_impl.cc
index b2d738aa08d0afbfd43b35fa1181cdcf2591fbe9..9a46480834f9022b015df4032c6375eb61864d28 100644
--- a/db/db_impl.cc
+++ b/db/db_impl.cc
@@ -511,13 +511,21 @@ Status DBImpl::Recover(VersionEdit* edit, MemTable* external_table,
     bool error_if_log_file_exist) {
   mutex_.AssertHeld();
 
-  // Ignore error from CreateDir since the creation of the DB is
-  // committed only when the descriptor is created, and this directory
-  // may already exist from a previous failed creation attempt.
   assert(db_lock_ == NULL);
   if (!external_table) {
-    env_->CreateDir(dbname_);
-    Status s = env_->LockFile(LockFileName(dbname_), &db_lock_);
+    // We call CreateDirIfMissing() as the directory may already exist (if we
+    // are reopening a DB), when this happens we don't want creating the
+    // directory to cause an error. However, we need to check if creating the
+    // directory fails or else we may get an obscure message about the lock
+    // file not existing. One real-world example of this occurring is if
+    // env->CreateDirIfMissing() doesn't create intermediate directories, e.g.
+    // when dbname_ is "dir/db" but when "dir" doesn't exist.
+    Status s = env_->CreateDirIfMissing(dbname_);
+    if (!s.ok()) {
+      return s;
+    }
+
+    s = env_->LockFile(LockFileName(dbname_), &db_lock_);
     if (!s.ok()) {
       return s;
     }
diff --git a/hdfs/env_hdfs.h b/hdfs/env_hdfs.h
index 29855a3511fa4df7a7253b5060635391e9fa28ea..2f37dd3653ca62833c967eef9bf9547258cf082e 100644
--- a/hdfs/env_hdfs.h
+++ b/hdfs/env_hdfs.h
@@ -162,7 +162,7 @@ class HdfsEnv : public Env {
                         // posix threads, etc.
 
   /**
-   * If the URI is specified of the form hdfs://server:port/path, 
+   * If the URI is specified of the form hdfs://server:port/path,
    * then connect to the specified cluster
    * else connect to default.
    */
@@ -189,7 +189,7 @@ class HdfsEnv : public Env {
     int rem = remaining.find(pathsep);
     std::string portStr = (rem == 0 ? remaining :
                            remaining.substr(0, rem));
-    
+
     tPort port;
     port = atoi(portStr.c_str());
     if (port == 0) {
@@ -199,7 +199,7 @@ class HdfsEnv : public Env {
     return fs;
   }
 
-  void split(const std::string &s, char delim, 
+  void split(const std::string &s, char delim,
              std::vector<std::string> &elems) {
     elems.clear();
     size_t prev = 0;
diff --git a/util/env_posix.cc b/util/env_posix.cc
index 726e4ae0ed647186195d877e53f11da4eaac2c41..0c7922a13c101c62b3ec8f26e2dd77f8eb15370f 100644
--- a/util/env_posix.cc
+++ b/util/env_posix.cc
@@ -606,6 +606,10 @@ class PosixEnv : public Env {
     if (mkdir(name.c_str(), 0755) != 0) {
       if (errno != EEXIST) {
         result = IOError(name, errno);
+      } else if (!DirExists(name)) { // Check that name is actually a
+                                     // directory.
+        // Message is taken from mkdir
+        result = Status::IOError("`"+name+"' exists but is not a directory");
       }
     }
     return result;
@@ -796,6 +800,16 @@ class PosixEnv : public Env {
     }
   }
 
+  // Returns true iff the named directory exists and is a directory.
+  virtual bool DirExists(const std::string& dname) {
+    struct stat statbuf;
+    if (stat(dname.c_str(), &statbuf) == 0) {
+      return S_ISDIR(statbuf.st_mode);
+    }
+    return false; // stat() failed return false
+  }
+
+
   // BGThread() is the body of the background thread
   void BGThread();
   static void* BGThreadWrapper(void* arg) {