diff --git a/cmd/healthcheck-handler.go b/cmd/healthcheck-handler.go
index 7fa80f2c4..73ce949ec 100644
--- a/cmd/healthcheck-handler.go
+++ b/cmd/healthcheck-handler.go
@@ -17,10 +17,12 @@
 package cmd
 
 import (
-	"context"
 	"fmt"
 	"net/http"
+	"os"
 	"runtime"
+
+	"github.com/minio/minio/cmd/logger"
 )
 
 const (
@@ -40,19 +42,38 @@ func ReadinessCheckHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
 	writeResponse(w, http.StatusOK, nil, mimeNone)
 }
 
-// LivenessCheckHandler -- checks if server can ListBuckets internally. If not, server is
-// considered to have failed and needs to be restarted.
+// LivenessCheckHandler -- checks if server can reach its disks internally.
+// If not, server is considered to have failed and needs to be restarted.
 // Liveness probes are used to detect situations where application (minio)
 // has gone into a state where it can not recover except by being restarted.
 func LivenessCheckHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+	ctx := newContext(r, w, "LivenessCheckHandler")
+
 	objLayer := newObjectLayerFn()
 	// Service not initialized yet
 	if objLayer == nil {
 		writeResponse(w, http.StatusServiceUnavailable, nil, mimeNone)
 		return
 	}
-	// List buckets is unsuccessful, means server is having issues, send 503 service unavailable
-	if _, err := objLayer.ListBuckets(context.Background()); err != nil {
+	var totalLocalDisks int
+	var erroredDisks int
+	for _, endpoint := range globalEndpoints {
+		// Check only if local disks are accessible, we do not have
+		// to reach to rest of the other servers in a distributed setup.
+		if endpoint.IsLocal {
+			totalLocalDisks++
+			// Attempt a stat to backend, any error resulting
+			// from this Stat() operation is considered as backend
+			// is not available, count them as errors.
+			if _, err := os.Stat(endpoint.Path); err != nil {
+				logger.LogIf(ctx, err)
+				erroredDisks++
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	// If all exported local disks have errored, we simply let kubernetes
+	// take us down.
+	if totalLocalDisks == erroredDisks {
 		writeResponse(w, http.StatusServiceUnavailable, nil, mimeNone)
 		return
 	}