diff --git a/hbase/src/main/java/com/yahoo/ycsb/db/HBaseClient.java b/hbase/src/main/java/com/yahoo/ycsb/db/HBaseClient.java
index 15c5088160711640771d12572f3e8bdc992e9daa..c81cfa3cc0ef89e5135069d5329eb6dafc48c63a 100644
--- a/hbase/src/main/java/com/yahoo/ycsb/db/HBaseClient.java
+++ b/hbase/src/main/java/com/yahoo/ycsb/db/HBaseClient.java
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ import java.util.*;
 import com.yahoo.ycsb.measurements.Measurements;
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.KeyValue;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HTableDescriptor;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.HTable;
 //import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.Scanner;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.Get;
@@ -99,6 +100,19 @@ public class HBaseClient extends com.yahoo.ycsb.DB
         }
       _columnFamilyBytes = Bytes.toBytes(_columnFamily);
 
+      // Terminate right now if table does not exist, since the client
+      // will not propagate this error upstream once the workload
+      // starts.
+      String table = com.yahoo.ycsb.workloads.CoreWorkload.table;
+      try
+	  {
+	      HTable ht = new HTable(config, table);
+	      HTableDescriptor dsc = ht.getTableDescriptor();
+	  }
+      catch (IOException e)
+	  {
+	      throw new DBException("Error accessing HBase table: " + table);
+	  }
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/hbase/src/main/java/com/yahoo/ycsb/db/HBaseClient10.java b/hbase/src/main/java/com/yahoo/ycsb/db/HBaseClient10.java
index 7adef892c698493557c09aaf58023c7296b248d6..bd4d6c6db0b65e34db066c3b5bbec0936aae3726 100644
--- a/hbase/src/main/java/com/yahoo/ycsb/db/HBaseClient10.java
+++ b/hbase/src/main/java/com/yahoo/ycsb/db/HBaseClient10.java
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.Cell;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.CellUtil;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HBaseConfiguration;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HTableDescriptor;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.KeyValue;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.TableName;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.BufferedMutator;
@@ -36,6 +37,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.ConnectionFactory;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.Delete;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.Durability;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.Get;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.HTable;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.Put;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.Result;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client.ResultScanner;
@@ -133,6 +135,20 @@ public class HBaseClient10 extends com.yahoo.ycsb.DB
             throw new DBException("No columnfamily specified");
         }
         _columnFamilyBytes = Bytes.toBytes(_columnFamily);
+
+      // Terminate right now if table does not exist, since the client
+      // will not propagate this error upstream once the workload
+      // starts.
+      String table = com.yahoo.ycsb.workloads.CoreWorkload.table;
+      try
+	  {
+	      HTable ht = new HTable(config, table);
+	      HTableDescriptor dsc = ht.getTableDescriptor();
+	  }
+      catch (IOException e)
+	  {
+	      throw new DBException("Error accessing HBase table: " + table);
+	  }
     }
 
     /**