diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/TableInfoMissingException.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/TableInfoMissingException.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..bc8bc7fc194
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/TableInfoMissingException.java
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+/**
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.hadoop.hbase;
+
+import org.apache.hadoop.classification.InterfaceAudience;
+
+/**
+ * 
+ * Failed to find .tableinfo file under table dir
+ *
+ */
+@InterfaceAudience.Private
+@SuppressWarnings("serial")
+public class TableInfoMissingException extends HBaseIOException {
+
+  public TableInfoMissingException() {
+    super();
+  }
+
+  public TableInfoMissingException( String message ) {
+    super(message);
+  }
+
+  public TableInfoMissingException( String message, Throwable t ) {
+    super(message, t);
+  }
+
+  public TableInfoMissingException( Throwable t ) {
+    super(t);
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/FSTableDescriptors.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/FSTableDescriptors.java
index 4a1dac50d88..3cfccb91edb 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/FSTableDescriptors.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/FSTableDescriptors.java
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.DeserializationException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HConstants;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HTableDescriptor;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.TableDescriptors;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.TableInfoMissingException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.protobuf.ProtobufUtil;
 
 import com.google.common.primitives.Ints;
@@ -163,7 +164,18 @@ public class FSTableDescriptors implements TableDescriptors {
         return tdm.getTableDescriptor();
       }
     }
-    HTableDescriptor htd = getTableDescriptor(this.fs, this.rootdir, tablename);
+    
+    HTableDescriptor htd = null;
+    try {
+       htd = getTableDescriptor(this.fs, this.rootdir, tablename);
+    } catch (NullPointerException e) {
+      LOG.debug("Exception during readTableDecriptor. Current table name = "
+          + tablename, e);
+    } catch (IOException ioe) {
+      LOG.debug("Exception during readTableDecriptor. Current table name = "
+          + tablename, ioe);
+    }
+    
     if (htd == null) {
       LOG.warn("The following folder is in HBase's root directory and " +
         "doesn't contain a table descriptor, " +
@@ -258,7 +270,7 @@ public class FSTableDescriptors implements TableDescriptors {
    * @return The 'current' tableinfo file.
    * @throws IOException
    */
-  private static FileStatus getTableInfoPath(final FileSystem fs,
+  public static FileStatus getTableInfoPath(final FileSystem fs,
       final Path tabledir)
   throws IOException {
     FileStatus [] status = FSUtils.listStatus(fs, tabledir, new PathFilter() {
@@ -375,21 +387,25 @@ public class FSTableDescriptors implements TableDescriptors {
   public static HTableDescriptor getTableDescriptor(FileSystem fs,
       Path hbaseRootDir, byte[] tableName)
   throws IOException {
-     return getTableDescriptor(fs, hbaseRootDir, Bytes.toString(tableName));
+     HTableDescriptor htd = null;
+     try {
+       htd = getTableDescriptor(fs, hbaseRootDir, Bytes.toString(tableName));
+     } catch (NullPointerException e) {
+       LOG.debug("Exception during readTableDecriptor. Current table name = "
+           + Bytes.toString(tableName), e);
+     }
+     return htd;
   }
 
   static HTableDescriptor getTableDescriptor(FileSystem fs,
-      Path hbaseRootDir, String tableName) {
+      Path hbaseRootDir, String tableName) throws NullPointerException, IOException{
     HTableDescriptor htd = null;
-    try {
-      htd = getTableDescriptor(fs, FSUtils.getTablePath(hbaseRootDir, tableName));
-    } catch (NullPointerException e) {
-      LOG.debug("Exception during readTableDecriptor. Current table name = " +
-        tableName , e);
-    } catch (IOException ioe) {
-      LOG.debug("Exception during readTableDecriptor. Current table name = " +
-        tableName , ioe);
+    // ignore both -ROOT- and .META. tables
+    if (Bytes.compareTo(Bytes.toBytes(tableName), HConstants.ROOT_TABLE_NAME) == 0
+        || Bytes.compareTo(Bytes.toBytes(tableName), HConstants.META_TABLE_NAME) == 0) {
+      return null;
     }
+    htd = getTableDescriptor(fs, FSUtils.getTablePath(hbaseRootDir, tableName));
     return htd;
   }
 
@@ -397,7 +413,10 @@ public class FSTableDescriptors implements TableDescriptors {
   throws IOException, NullPointerException {
     if (tableDir == null) throw new NullPointerException();
     FileStatus status = getTableInfoPath(fs, tableDir);
-    if (status == null) return null;
+    if (status == null) {
+      throw new TableInfoMissingException("No .tableinfo file under "
+          + tableDir.toUri());
+    }
     int len = Ints.checkedCast(status.getLen());
     byte [] content = new byte[len];
     FSDataInputStream fsDataInputStream = fs.open(status.getPath());
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/HBaseFsck.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/HBaseFsck.java
index 71d5648da81..e3c51465342 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/HBaseFsck.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/HBaseFsck.java
@@ -712,8 +712,9 @@ public class HBaseFsck {
               hbaseRoot, tableName);
           modTInfo.htds.add(htd);
         } catch (IOException ioe) {
-          LOG.error("Unable to read .tableinfo from " + hbaseRoot, ioe);
-          throw ioe;
+          LOG.warn("Unable to read .tableinfo from " + hbaseRoot, ioe);
+          errors.reportError(ERROR_CODE.NO_TABLEINFO_FILE, 
+              "Unable to read .tableinfo from " + hbaseRoot);
         }
       }
       modTInfo.addRegionInfo(hbi);
@@ -2640,7 +2641,7 @@ public class HBaseFsck {
       MULTI_DEPLOYED, SHOULD_NOT_BE_DEPLOYED, MULTI_META_REGION, RS_CONNECT_FAILURE,
       FIRST_REGION_STARTKEY_NOT_EMPTY, LAST_REGION_ENDKEY_NOT_EMPTY, DUPE_STARTKEYS,
       HOLE_IN_REGION_CHAIN, OVERLAP_IN_REGION_CHAIN, REGION_CYCLE, DEGENERATE_REGION,
-      ORPHAN_HDFS_REGION, LINGERING_SPLIT_PARENT
+      ORPHAN_HDFS_REGION, LINGERING_SPLIT_PARENT, NO_TABLEINFO_FILE
     }
     public void clear();
     public void report(String message);
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/TestHBaseFsck.java b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/TestHBaseFsck.java
index 4a4e5ab56b8..10fa5bbc2a6 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/TestHBaseFsck.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/TestHBaseFsck.java
@@ -414,6 +414,27 @@ public class TestHBaseFsck {
     }
   }
 
+  @Test
+  public void testHbckMissingTableinfo() throws Exception {
+    String table = "tableInfo";
+    FileSystem fs = null;
+    Path tableinfo = null;
+    try {
+      setupTable(table);
+      Path hbaseTableDir = new Path(conf.get(HConstants.HBASE_DIR) + "/" + table );
+      fs = hbaseTableDir.getFileSystem(conf);
+      FileStatus status = FSTableDescriptors.getTableInfoPath(fs, hbaseTableDir);
+      tableinfo = status.getPath();
+      fs.rename(tableinfo, new Path("/.tableinfo"));
+      
+      HBaseFsck hbck = doFsck(conf, false); 
+      assertErrors(hbck, new ERROR_CODE[] { ERROR_CODE.NO_TABLEINFO_FILE });
+    } finally {
+      fs.rename(new Path("/.tableinfo"), tableinfo);
+      deleteTable(table);
+    }
+  }
+   
   /**
    * This create and fixes a bad table with regions that have a duplicate
    * start key