diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index f16633ef2de6ad0ac117c2f45bbc47a4baf34266..475c8ab7a60a6dfa1018cb87fe191fe25b04342c 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+2014-07-02  Chris Allegretta <chrisa@asty.org>
+	* src/files.c (do_lockfile): Check whether the directory
+	  of the file we're trying to lock exists, and make the
+	  resulting error message more intuitive.  Fixes
+	  Savannah bug 42639 by bens.
+
 2014-07-02  Mark Majeres  <mark@engine12.com>
 	* src/text.c (undo_cut, redo_cut, update_undo): Handle the
 	cases of cutting-from-cursor-to-end-of-line correctly.
diff --git a/src/files.c b/src/files.c
index 18baacc35fabc574cd0cddeb290c86b649b307b7..97a2e88e51a65f6c95552f3c865bc2c8b688baed 100644
--- a/src/files.c
+++ b/src/files.c
@@ -141,7 +141,7 @@ int write_lockfile(const char *lockfilename, const char *origfilename, bool modi
     mypid = getpid();
 
     if (gethostname(myhostname, 31) < 0) {
-       statusbar(_("Couldn't determine hostname for lock file: %s"), strerror(errno));
+       statusbar(_("Couldn't determine hosttname for lock file: %s"), strerror(errno));
        return -1;
     }
 
@@ -247,6 +247,7 @@ int do_lockfile(const char *filename)
     size_t lockfilesize = strlen(filename) + strlen(locking_prefix)
 		+ strlen(locking_suffix) + 3;
     char *lockfilename = charalloc(lockfilesize);
+    char *lockfilecpy = NULL;
     char lockprog[12], lockuser[16];
     struct stat fileinfo;
     int lockfd, lockpid;
@@ -294,8 +295,17 @@ int do_lockfile(const char *filename)
             blank_statusbar();
             return -1;
         }
+    } else {
+	lockfilecpy = mallocstrcpy(NULL, lockfilename);
+	lockfilecpy = dirname(lockfilecpy);
+	if (stat(lockfilename, &fileinfo) == -1) {
+	    statusbar(_("Error writing lock file: Directory \'%s\' doesn't exist"),
+		lockfilecpy);
+	    return -1;
+	}
     }
 
+
     return write_lockfile(lockfilename, filename, FALSE);
 }
 #endif /* !NANO_TINY */