diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 29a47672be0..04fa3d04548 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@ Release 0.18.0 - Unreleased
                the region location cache
    HBASE-864   Deadlock in regionserver
    HBASE-865   Fix javadoc warnings (Rong-En Fan via Jim Kellerman)
+   HBASE-872   Getting exceptions in shell when creating/disabling tables
 
   IMPROVEMENTS
    HBASE-801  When a table haven't disable, shell could response in a "user
diff --git a/bin/hirb.rb b/bin/hirb.rb
index 7a49f391636..81f42f5431f 100644
--- a/bin/hirb.rb
+++ b/bin/hirb.rb
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ end
 # Turn off retries in hbase and ipc.  Human doesn't want to wait on N retries.
 @configuration = org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HBaseConfiguration.new()
 @configuration.set("hbase.master", master) if master
-@configuration.setInt("hbase.client.retries.number", 3)
+@configuration.setInt("hbase.client.retries.number", 5)
 @configuration.setInt("ipc.client.connect.max.retries", 3)
 
 # Do lazy create of admin because if we are pointed at bad master, it will hang
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/TableNotFoundException.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/TableNotFoundException.java
index 4191b4e4490..dc6da43e470 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/TableNotFoundException.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/TableNotFoundException.java
@@ -19,10 +19,8 @@
  */
 package org.apache.hadoop.hbase;
 
-import java.io.IOException;
-
 /** Thrown when a table can not be located */
-public class TableNotFoundException extends IOException {
+public class TableNotFoundException extends RegionException {
   private static final long serialVersionUID = 993179627856392526L;
 
   /** default constructor */
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/HBaseAdmin.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/HBaseAdmin.java
index 7b7992a9e2b..f98f23d2ecf 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/HBaseAdmin.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/HBaseAdmin.java
@@ -31,9 +31,9 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HRegionInfo;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HRegionLocation;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HTableDescriptor;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.MasterNotRunningException;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.RegionException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.RemoteExceptionHandler;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.TableExistsException;
-import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.TableNotFoundException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.io.Cell;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.io.RowResult;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.ipc.HMasterInterface;
@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ public class HBaseAdmin {
         connection.locateRegion(desc.getName(), HConstants.EMPTY_START_ROW);
         break;
         
-      } catch (TableNotFoundException e) {
+      } catch (RegionException e) {
         if (tries == numRetries - 1) {
           // Ran out of tries
           throw e;
@@ -368,9 +368,10 @@ public class HBaseAdmin {
           Bytes.toString(tableName));
       }
     }
-    if (isTableEnabled(tableName))
-      throw new IOException("unable to disable table " +
-        Bytes.toString(tableName));
+    if (isTableEnabled(tableName)) {
+      throw new RegionException("Retries exhausted, it took too long to wait"+
+        " for the table " + Bytes.toString(tableName) + " to be disabled.");
+    }
     LOG.info("Disabled " + Bytes.toString(tableName));
   }
   
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/NoServerForRegionException.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/NoServerForRegionException.java
index 3187ab1a3e5..592061b8382 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/NoServerForRegionException.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/NoServerForRegionException.java
@@ -19,12 +19,12 @@
  */
 package org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client;
 
-import java.io.IOException;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.RegionException;
 
 /**
  * Thrown when no region server can be found for a region
  */
-public class NoServerForRegionException extends IOException {
+public class NoServerForRegionException extends RegionException {
   private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L << 11 - 1L;
 
   /** default constructor */
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/RegionOfflineException.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/RegionOfflineException.java
index f60afc21735..ccbd5929823 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/RegionOfflineException.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/RegionOfflineException.java
@@ -19,10 +19,10 @@
  */
 package org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client;
 
-import java.io.IOException;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.RegionException;
 
 /** Thrown when a table can not be located */
-public class RegionOfflineException extends IOException {
+public class RegionOfflineException extends RegionException {
   private static final long serialVersionUID = 466008402L;
 /** default constructor */
   public RegionOfflineException() {
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/migration/v5/HColumnDescriptor.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/migration/v5/HColumnDescriptor.java
index 60390d8f60d..3bdbaba80c4 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/migration/v5/HColumnDescriptor.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/migration/v5/HColumnDescriptor.java
@@ -446,4 +446,4 @@ public class HColumnDescriptor implements WritableComparable {
     }
     return result;
   }
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}