diff --git a/Library/OSRM.cpp b/Library/OSRM.cpp
index 3a60cb6b5..1a0c8f5e9 100644
--- a/Library/OSRM.cpp
+++ b/Library/OSRM.cpp
@@ -22,7 +22,8 @@ or see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl.txt.
 
 OSRM::OSRM(const char * server_ini_path) {
     if( !testDataFile(server_ini_path) ){
-        throw OSRMException("server.ini not found");
+        std::string error_message = std::string(server_ini_path) + " not found";
+        throw OSRMException(error_message.c_str());
     }
 
     IniFile serverConfig(server_ini_path);
diff --git a/Util/IniFile.h b/Util/IniFile.h
index aa5c4b9c2..582cc273c 100644
--- a/Util/IniFile.h
+++ b/Util/IniFile.h
@@ -25,29 +25,36 @@ or see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl.txt.
 #include "../DataStructures/HashTable.h"
 
 #include <boost/algorithm/string.hpp>
+#include <boost/filesystem.hpp>
+#include <boost/filesystem/fstream.hpp>
 
 #include <exception>
-#include <fstream>
 #include <iostream>
 #include <string>
 
 class IniFile {
 public:
-    IniFile(const char * configFile) {
-        std::ifstream config( configFile );
-        if(!config) {
-            std::string str = "[config] " + std::string(configFile) + " not found";
-            throw OSRMException(str.c_str());
+    IniFile(const char * config_filename) {
+        boost::filesystem::path config_file(config_filename);
+        if ( !boost::filesystem::exists( config_file ) ) {
+            std::string error = std::string(config_filename) + " not found";
+            throw OSRMException(error);
+       }
+        if ( 0 == boost::filesystem::file_size( config_file ) ) {
+            std::string error = std::string(config_filename) + " is empty";
+            throw OSRMException(error);
         }
 
+        boost::filesystem::ifstream config( config_file );
         std::string line;
         if (config.is_open()) {
             while ( config.good() )  {
                 getline (config,line);
                 std::vector<std::string> tokens;
                 Tokenize(line, tokens);
-                if(2 == tokens.size() )
+                if(2 == tokens.size() ) {
                     parameters.insert(std::make_pair(tokens[0], tokens[1]));
+                }
             }
             config.close();
         }
diff --git a/Util/OSRMException.h b/Util/OSRMException.h
index dcae24e18..804255a3c 100644
--- a/Util/OSRMException.h
+++ b/Util/OSRMException.h
@@ -22,15 +22,18 @@ or see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl.txt.
 #define OSRM_EXCEPTION_H
 
 #include <exception>
+#include <string>
 
 class OSRMException: public std::exception {
 public:
     OSRMException(const char * message) : message(message) {}
+    OSRMException(const std::string & message) : message(message) {}
+    virtual ~OSRMException() throw() {}
 private:
     virtual const char* what() const throw() {
-        return message;
+        return message.c_str();
     }
-    const char * message;
+    const std::string message;
 };
 
-#endif /* OSRM_EXCEPTION_H */
\ No newline at end of file
+#endif /* OSRM_EXCEPTION_H */