diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 39b2d53f1d5..74f538f5e3b 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -193,6 +193,7 @@ Trunk (unreleased changes)
    HBASE-34    Set memcache flush size per column (Andrew Purtell via Stack)
    HBASE-42    Set region split size on table creation (Andrew Purtell via Stack)
    HBASE-43    Add a read-only attribute to columns (Andrew Purtell via Stack)
+   HBASE-424   Should be able to enable/disable .META. table
 
   IMPROVEMENTS
    HBASE-559   MR example job to count table rows
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/HBaseAdmin.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/HBaseAdmin.java
index e276b3116a8..54189baa1c9 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/HBaseAdmin.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/HBaseAdmin.java
@@ -312,7 +312,6 @@ public class HBaseAdmin {
     if (this.master == null) {
       throw new MasterNotRunningException("master has been shut down");
     }
-    HTableDescriptor.isLegalTableName(tableName);
     try {
       this.master.enableTable(tableName);
     } catch (RemoteException e) {
@@ -373,7 +372,6 @@ public class HBaseAdmin {
     if (this.master == null) {
       throw new MasterNotRunningException("master has been shut down");
     }
-    HTableDescriptor.isLegalTableName(tableName);
     try {
       this.master.disableTable(tableName);
     } catch (RemoteException e) {
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/RegionManager.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/RegionManager.java
index aa5e0f7857b..be76b8b33f6 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/RegionManager.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/RegionManager.java
@@ -519,15 +519,21 @@ class RegionManager implements HConstants {
     byte [] firstMetaRegion = null;
     Set<MetaRegion> metaRegions = new HashSet<MetaRegion>();
     
-    synchronized (onlineMetaRegions) {
-      if (onlineMetaRegions.size() == 1) {
-        firstMetaRegion = onlineMetaRegions.firstKey();
-      } else if (onlineMetaRegions.containsKey(tableName)) {
-        firstMetaRegion = tableName;
-      } else {
-        firstMetaRegion = onlineMetaRegions.headMap(tableName).lastKey();
+    if (Bytes.equals(tableName, HConstants.META_TABLE_NAME)) {
+      metaRegions.add(new MetaRegion(rootRegionLocation.get(),
+          HRegionInfo.ROOT_REGIONINFO.getRegionName()));
+      
+    } else {
+      synchronized (onlineMetaRegions) {
+        if (onlineMetaRegions.size() == 1) {
+          firstMetaRegion = onlineMetaRegions.firstKey();
+        } else if (onlineMetaRegions.containsKey(tableName)) {
+          firstMetaRegion = tableName;
+        } else {
+          firstMetaRegion = onlineMetaRegions.headMap(tableName).lastKey();
+        }
+        metaRegions.addAll(onlineMetaRegions.tailMap(firstMetaRegion).values());
       }
-      metaRegions.addAll(onlineMetaRegions.tailMap(firstMetaRegion).values());
     }
     return metaRegions;
   }