diff --git a/zeppelin-interpreter/src/main/java/org/apache/zeppelin/conf/ZeppelinConfiguration.java b/zeppelin-interpreter/src/main/java/org/apache/zeppelin/conf/ZeppelinConfiguration.java
index cbd894eaa3e..75391deebd0 100644
--- a/zeppelin-interpreter/src/main/java/org/apache/zeppelin/conf/ZeppelinConfiguration.java
+++ b/zeppelin-interpreter/src/main/java/org/apache/zeppelin/conf/ZeppelinConfiguration.java
@@ -20,6 +20,8 @@
 import com.google.common.annotations.VisibleForTesting;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.net.URI;
+import java.net.URISyntaxException;
 import java.net.URL;
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.HashMap;
@@ -583,7 +585,7 @@ public String getRelativeDir(ConfVars c) {
   }
 
   public String getRelativeDir(String path) {
-    if (path != null && path.startsWith(File.separator) || isWindowsPath(path)) {
+    if (path != null && (path.startsWith(File.separator) || isWindowsPath(path) || isPathWithScheme(path))) {
       return path;
     } else {
       return getString(ConfVars.ZEPPELIN_HOME) + File.separator + path;
@@ -602,6 +604,14 @@ public boolean isWindowsPath(String path){
     return path.matches("^[A-Za-z]:\\\\.*");
   }
 
+  public boolean isPathWithScheme(String path){
+      try {
+        return StringUtils.isNotBlank(new URI(path).getScheme());
+    } catch (URISyntaxException e) {
+        return false;
+    }
+  }
+
   public boolean isAnonymousAllowed() {
     if (anonymousAllowed == null) {
       anonymousAllowed = this.getShiroPath().equals(StringUtils.EMPTY);
diff --git a/zeppelin-zengine/src/test/java/org/apache/zeppelin/conf/ZeppelinConfigurationTest.java b/zeppelin-zengine/src/test/java/org/apache/zeppelin/conf/ZeppelinConfigurationTest.java
index c730e5f4b26..001860b77dc 100644
--- a/zeppelin-zengine/src/test/java/org/apache/zeppelin/conf/ZeppelinConfigurationTest.java
+++ b/zeppelin-zengine/src/test/java/org/apache/zeppelin/conf/ZeppelinConfigurationTest.java
@@ -16,9 +16,10 @@
  */
 package org.apache.zeppelin.conf;
 
-import junit.framework.Assert;
+
 import org.apache.commons.configuration.ConfigurationException;
 import org.apache.zeppelin.conf.ZeppelinConfiguration.ConfVars;
+import org.junit.Assert;
 import org.junit.Before;
 import org.junit.Test;
 
@@ -78,6 +79,30 @@ public void isWindowsPathTestFalse() throws ConfigurationException {
     Assert.assertFalse(isIt);
   }
 
+  @Test
+  public void isPathWithSchemeTestTrue() throws ConfigurationException {
+
+    ZeppelinConfiguration conf = new ZeppelinConfiguration(this.getClass().getResource("/zeppelin-site.xml"));
+    Boolean isIt = conf.isPathWithScheme("hdfs://hadoop.example.com/zeppelin/notebook");
+    Assert.assertTrue(isIt);
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void isPathWithSchemeTestFalse() throws ConfigurationException {
+
+    ZeppelinConfiguration conf = new ZeppelinConfiguration(this.getClass().getResource("/zeppelin-site.xml"));
+    Boolean isIt = conf.isPathWithScheme("~/test/file.xml");
+    Assert.assertFalse(isIt);
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void isPathWithInvalidSchemeTest() throws ConfigurationException {
+
+    ZeppelinConfiguration conf = new ZeppelinConfiguration(this.getClass().getResource("/zeppelin-site.xml"));
+    Boolean isIt = conf.isPathWithScheme("c:\\test\\file.txt");
+    Assert.assertFalse(isIt);
+  }
+
   @Test
   public void getNotebookDirTest() throws ConfigurationException {
     ZeppelinConfiguration conf = new ZeppelinConfiguration(this.getClass().getResource("/zeppelin-site.xml"));