diff --git a/src/image/ImagePool.cc b/src/image/ImagePool.cc
index f47c9943f2..ad2f871f76 100644
--- a/src/image/ImagePool.cc
+++ b/src/image/ImagePool.cc
@@ -357,6 +357,17 @@ int ImagePool::disk_attribute(int               vm_id,
             return -1;
         }
 
+        int rc;
+        long long size;
+
+        rc = disk->vector_value("SIZE", size);
+
+        if ( rc != 0 || size <= 0 )
+        {
+            error_str = "SIZE attribute must be a positive integer value.";
+            return -1;
+        }
+
         img_type   = Image::DATABLOCK;
         dev_prefix = disk->vector_value("DEV_PREFIX");
 
diff --git a/src/vm/VirtualMachine.cc b/src/vm/VirtualMachine.cc
index 3ad9182b9a..873abbc117 100644
--- a/src/vm/VirtualMachine.cc
+++ b/src/vm/VirtualMachine.cc
@@ -1729,6 +1729,9 @@ int VirtualMachine::get_disk_images(string& error_str)
         }
         else
         {
+            oss << "DISK " << i << ": " << error_str;
+            error_str = oss.str();
+
             goto error_common;
         }
     }