diff --git a/strax/storage/rucio.py b/strax/storage/rucio.py
index 6df0a4f40..44f30b05e 100644
--- a/strax/storage/rucio.py
+++ b/strax/storage/rucio.py
@@ -12,17 +12,23 @@
 class rucio(strax.StorageBackend):
     """Get data from a rucio directory
     """
+    def __init__(self, root_dir, *args, **kwargs):
+        super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
+        self.root_dir = root_dir
 
-    def get_metadata(self, dirname, **kwargs):
-        dirname = str(dirname)
+    def get_metadata(self, dirname:str, **kwargs):
         prefix = dirname_to_prefix(dirname)
         metadata_json = f'{prefix}-metadata.json'
-        fn = rucio_path(metadata_json, dirname)
+        fn = rucio_path(self.root_dir, metadata_json, dirname)
+
+        if not osp.exists(fn):
+            raise strax.DataCorrupted(f"Data in {dirname} has no metadata")
+
         with open(fn, mode='r') as f:
             return json.loads(f.read())
 
     def _read_chunk(self, dirname, chunk_info, dtype, compressor):
-        fn = rucio_path(chunk_info['filename'], dirname)
+        fn = rucio_path(self.root_dir, chunk_info['filename'], dirname)
         return strax.load_file(fn, dtype=dtype, compressor=compressor)
 
     def _saver(self, dirname, metadata):
@@ -30,11 +36,11 @@ def _saver(self, dirname, metadata):
             "Cannot save directly into rucio, upload with admix instead")
 
 
-def rucio_path(filename, dirname):
-    root_path ='/dali/lgrandi/rucio'
+def rucio_path(root_dir, filename, dirname):
+    """Convert target to path according to rucio convention"""
     scope = "xnt_"+dirname.split('-')[0]
-    rucio_did = "{0}:{1}".format(scope,filename)
+    rucio_did = "{0}:{1}".format(scope, filename)
     rucio_md5 = hashlib.md5(rucio_did.encode('utf-8')).hexdigest()
     t1 = rucio_md5[0:2]
     t2 = rucio_md5[2:4]
-    return osp.join(root_path,scope,t1,t2,filename)
+    return osp.join(root_dir, scope, t1, t2, filename)
diff --git a/strax/utils.py b/strax/utils.py
index f906c961d..7e525f684 100644
--- a/strax/utils.py
+++ b/strax/utils.py
@@ -205,7 +205,6 @@ def profile_threaded(filename):
         monitoring_gil = True
     except (RuntimeError, ImportError):
         monitoring_gil = False
-        pass
 
     yappi.start()
     yield