diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index 7d2a15a309e..c428fc97aa4 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -167,6 +167,9 @@ Release 2.4.1 - UNRELEASED
     HDFS-6236. ImageServlet should use Time#monotonicNow to measure latency.
     (cnauroth)
 
+    HDFS-6245. datanode fails to start with a bad disk even when failed
+    volumes is set. (Arpit Agarwal)
+
 Release 2.4.0 - 2014-04-07 
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/DataNode.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/DataNode.java
index 456e6c1ae6d..7215253fb07 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/DataNode.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/DataNode.java
@@ -1783,8 +1783,15 @@ public static List<StorageLocation> getStorageLocations(Configuration conf) {
       try {
         location = StorageLocation.parse(locationString);
       } catch (IOException ioe) {
-        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Failed to parse conf property "
-            + DFS_DATANODE_DATA_DIR_KEY + ": " + locationString, ioe);
+        LOG.error("Failed to initialize storage directory " + locationString
+            + ". Exception details: " + ioe);
+        // Ignore the exception.
+        continue;
+      } catch (SecurityException se) {
+        LOG.error("Failed to initialize storage directory " + locationString
+                     + ". Exception details: " + se);
+        // Ignore the exception.
+        continue;
       }
 
       locations.add(location);
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/StorageLocation.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/StorageLocation.java
index 66ab18f31fb..f85fcb115ef 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/StorageLocation.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/StorageLocation.java
@@ -78,7 +78,8 @@ public File getFile() {
    * @return A StorageLocation object if successfully parsed, null otherwise.
    *         Does not throw any exceptions.
    */
-  static StorageLocation parse(String rawLocation) throws IOException {
+  static StorageLocation parse(String rawLocation)
+      throws IOException, SecurityException {
     Matcher matcher = regex.matcher(rawLocation);
     StorageType storageType = StorageType.DEFAULT;
     String location = rawLocation;