diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index d27fa334558..90d6cc750b3 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ Hbase Change Log
                even if shutdown was not requested
    HBASE-629   Split reports incorrect elapsed time
    HBASE-623   Migration script for hbase-82
+   HBASE-630   Default hbase.rootdir is garbage
 
   IMPROVEMENTS
    HBASE-559   MR example job to count table rows
diff --git a/conf/hbase-default.xml b/conf/hbase-default.xml
index 9ea65fd6c67..2ace8701a2f 100644
--- a/conf/hbase-default.xml
+++ b/conf/hbase-default.xml
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@
   </property>
   <property>
     <name>hbase.rootdir</name>
-    <value>file:///tmp/hbase-${user.home}/hbase</value>
+    <value>file:///tmp/hbase-${user.name}/hbase</value>
     <description>The directory shared by region servers.
     Should be fully-qualified to include the filesystem to use.
     E.g: hdfs://NAMENODE_SERVER:PORT/HBASE_ROOTDIR