diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/YamlConfigurationLoader.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/YamlConfigurationLoader.java
index 4a1280c9af..e5885b18db 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/YamlConfigurationLoader.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/YamlConfigurationLoader.java
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ import org.slf4j.Logger;
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
 
 import org.apache.cassandra.exceptions.ConfigurationException;
+import org.apache.cassandra.utils.FBUtilities;
 import org.yaml.snakeyaml.TypeDescription;
 import org.yaml.snakeyaml.Yaml;
 import org.yaml.snakeyaml.error.YAMLException;
@@ -45,6 +46,7 @@ public class YamlConfigurationLoader implements ConfigurationLoader
     private static final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(YamlConfigurationLoader.class);
 
     private final static String DEFAULT_CONFIGURATION = "cassandra.yaml";
+    private static final String FILE_PREFIX = "file:///";
 
     /**
      * Inspect the classpath to find storage configuration file
@@ -53,7 +55,15 @@ public class YamlConfigurationLoader implements ConfigurationLoader
     {
         String configUrl = System.getProperty("cassandra.config");
         if (configUrl == null)
+        {
             configUrl = DEFAULT_CONFIGURATION;
+        }
+        else if (!FBUtilities.isUnix() && !configUrl.startsWith(FILE_PREFIX))
+        {
+            String format = "Non-unix environment detected, %s prefix not supplied at the beginning of file path but is required. Changing path to %s";
+            configUrl = FILE_PREFIX + configUrl;
+            logger.warn(String.format(format, FILE_PREFIX, configUrl));
+        }
 
         URL url;
         try