diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSUtilClient.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSUtilClient.java
index a01d5411a1fd8..b2fc472aad835 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSUtilClient.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSUtilClient.java
@@ -662,7 +662,7 @@ public static boolean isValidName(String src) {
     for (int i = 0; i < components.length; i++) {
       String element = components[i];
       // For Windows, we must allow the : in the drive letter.
-      if (Shell.WINDOWS && i == 1 && element.contains(":")) {
+      if (Shell.WINDOWS && i == 1 && element.endsWith(":")) {
         continue;
       }
       if (element.equals(".")  ||
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDFSUtil.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDFSUtil.java
index f8e8e4120c43f..aa5b8c450fe4d 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDFSUtil.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/TestDFSUtil.java
@@ -83,6 +83,7 @@
 import org.apache.hadoop.security.alias.JavaKeyStoreProvider;
 import org.apache.hadoop.test.GenericTestUtils;
 import org.apache.hadoop.test.LambdaTestUtils;
+import org.apache.hadoop.util.Shell;
 import org.junit.Assert;
 import org.junit.Before;
 import org.junit.Test;
@@ -872,6 +873,11 @@ public void testIsValidName() {
     assertTrue(DFSUtil.isValidName("/bar/"));
     assertFalse(DFSUtil.isValidName("/foo/:/bar"));
     assertFalse(DFSUtil.isValidName("/foo:bar"));
+    if (Shell.WINDOWS) {
+      assertTrue(DFSUtil.isValidName("/C:/some/path"));
+    } else {
+      assertFalse(DFSUtil.isValidName("/C:/some/path"));
+    }
   }
   
   @Test(timeout=5000)