diff --git a/lib/fileutils.rb b/lib/fileutils.rb
index 660680f967..b24d6f4dcb 100644
--- a/lib/fileutils.rb
+++ b/lib/fileutils.rb
@@ -201,6 +201,7 @@ module FileUtils
         stack.push path
         path = File.dirname(path)
       end
+      stack.pop                 # root directory should exist
       stack.reverse_each do |dir|
         begin
           fu_mkdir dir, mode
diff --git a/test/fileutils/test_fileutils.rb b/test/fileutils/test_fileutils.rb
index 35e419e54d..f3b80d1fda 100644
--- a/test/fileutils/test_fileutils.rb
+++ b/test/fileutils/test_fileutils.rb
@@ -905,6 +905,24 @@ class TestFileUtils < Test::Unit::TestCase
     mkdir_p '/'
   end
 
+  if /mswin|mingw|cygwin/ =~ RUBY_PLATFORM
+    def test_mkdir_p_root
+      if /cygwin/ =~ RUBY_PLATFORM
+        tmpdir = `cygpath -ma .`.chomp
+      else
+        tmpdir = Dir.pwd
+      end
+      skip "No drive letter" unless /\A[a-z]:/i =~ tmpdir
+      drive = "./#{$&}"
+      assert_file_not_exist drive
+      mkdir_p "#{tmpdir}/none/dir"
+      assert_directory "none/dir"
+      assert_file_not_exist drive
+    ensure
+      Dir.rmdir(drive) if drive and File.directory?(drive)
+    end
+  end
+
   def test_mkdir_p_file_perm
     mkdir_p 'tmp/tmp/tmp', :mode => 07777
     assert_directory 'tmp/tmp/tmp'