diff --git a/cmd/admin-handlers.go b/cmd/admin-handlers.go
index 81097f1ef..212ef029f 100644
--- a/cmd/admin-handlers.go
+++ b/cmd/admin-handlers.go
@@ -355,8 +355,7 @@ func (a adminAPIHandlers) DownloadProfilingHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *htt
 		return
 	}
 
-	// Return 200 OK
-	w.WriteHeader(http.StatusOK)
+	profilingDataFound := false
 
 	// Initialize a zip writer which will provide a zipped content
 	// of profiling data of all nodes
@@ -371,6 +370,8 @@ func (a adminAPIHandlers) DownloadProfilingHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *htt
 			continue
 		}
 
+		profilingDataFound = true
+
 		// Send profiling data to zip as file
 		header, err := zip.FileInfoHeader(dummyFileInfo{
 			name:    fmt.Sprintf("profiling-%d", i),
@@ -391,6 +392,11 @@ func (a adminAPIHandlers) DownloadProfilingHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *htt
 			return
 		}
 	}
+
+	if !profilingDataFound {
+		writeErrorResponseJSON(w, ErrAdminProfilerNotEnabled, r.URL)
+		return
+	}
 }
 
 // extractHealInitParams - Validates params for heal init API.
diff --git a/cmd/api-errors.go b/cmd/api-errors.go
index d3b10fa3c..532853bc6 100644
--- a/cmd/api-errors.go
+++ b/cmd/api-errors.go
@@ -291,6 +291,7 @@ const (
 	ErrInvalidColumnIndex
 	ErrMissingHeaders
 	ErrAdminConfigNotificationTargetsFailed
+	ErrAdminProfilerNotEnabled
 )
 
 // error code to APIError structure, these fields carry respective
@@ -892,6 +893,11 @@ var errorCodeResponse = map[APIErrorCode]APIError{
 		Description:    "Configuration update failed due an unsuccessful attempt to connect to one or more notification servers",
 		HTTPStatusCode: http.StatusBadRequest,
 	},
+	ErrAdminProfilerNotEnabled: {
+		Code:           "XMinioAdminProfilerNotEnabled",
+		Description:    "Unable to perform the requested operation because profiling is not enabled",
+		HTTPStatusCode: http.StatusBadRequest,
+	},
 	ErrAdminCredentialsMismatch: {
 		Code:           "XMinioAdminCredentialsMismatch",
 		Description:    "Credentials in config mismatch with server environment variables",