diff --git a/cmd/admin-heal-ops.go b/cmd/admin-heal-ops.go
index 2384b2145..47541302d 100644
--- a/cmd/admin-heal-ops.go
+++ b/cmd/admin-heal-ops.go
@@ -586,20 +586,13 @@ func (h *healSequence) healBucket(bucket string) error {
 		return errServerNotInitialized
 	}
 
-	bucketLock := globalNSMutex.NewNSLock(bucket, "")
-	if err := bucketLock.GetLock(globalHealingTimeout); err != nil {
-		return err
-	}
-
 	results, err := objectAPI.HealBucket(h.ctx, bucket, h.settings.DryRun)
 	// push any available results before checking for error
 	for _, result := range results {
 		if perr := h.pushHealResultItem(result); perr != nil {
-			bucketLock.Unlock()
 			return perr
 		}
 	}
-	bucketLock.Unlock()
 	// handle heal-bucket error
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
diff --git a/cmd/admin-rpc-server.go b/cmd/admin-rpc-server.go
index 5f52fcdce..22e9e2fde 100644
--- a/cmd/admin-rpc-server.go
+++ b/cmd/admin-rpc-server.go
@@ -90,7 +90,11 @@ func (s *adminCmd) ReInitFormat(args *ReInitFormatArgs, reply *AuthRPCReply) err
 	if err := args.IsAuthenticated(); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
-	_, err := newObjectLayerFn().HealFormat(context.Background(), args.DryRun)
+	objectAPI := newObjectLayerFn()
+	if objectAPI == nil {
+		return errServerNotInitialized
+	}
+	_, err := objectAPI.HealFormat(context.Background(), args.DryRun)
 	return err
 }
 
diff --git a/cmd/test-utils_test.go b/cmd/test-utils_test.go
index 0a4ab7241..ff3e05961 100644
--- a/cmd/test-utils_test.go
+++ b/cmd/test-utils_test.go
@@ -1746,18 +1746,6 @@ func removeDiskN(disks []string, n int) {
 	}
 }
 
-// Initializes storage disks with 'N' errored disks, N disks return 'err' for each disk access.
-func prepareNErroredDisks(storageDisks []StorageAPI, offline int, err error, t *testing.T) []StorageAPI {
-	if offline > len(storageDisks) {
-		t.Fatal("Requested more offline disks than supplied storageDisks slice", offline, len(storageDisks))
-	}
-
-	for i := 0; i < offline; i++ {
-		storageDisks[i] = &naughtyDisk{disk: storageDisks[i], defaultErr: err}
-	}
-	return storageDisks
-}
-
 // creates a bucket for the tests and returns the bucket name.
 // initializes the specified API endpoints for the tests.
 // initialies the root and returns its path.
diff --git a/cmd/xl-sets.go b/cmd/xl-sets.go
index 7509e6a38..e7eea881f 100644
--- a/cmd/xl-sets.go
+++ b/cmd/xl-sets.go
@@ -1043,6 +1043,12 @@ func (s *xlSets) HealFormat(ctx context.Context, dryRun bool) (madmin.HealResult
 
 // HealBucket - heals inconsistent buckets and bucket metadata on all sets.
 func (s *xlSets) HealBucket(ctx context.Context, bucket string, dryRun bool) (results []madmin.HealResultItem, err error) {
+	bucketLock := globalNSMutex.NewNSLock(bucket, "")
+	if err := bucketLock.GetLock(globalHealingTimeout); err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	defer bucketLock.Unlock()
+
 	// Initialize heal result info
 	res := madmin.HealResultItem{
 		Type:      madmin.HealItemBucket,
diff --git a/cmd/xl-v1-healing.go b/cmd/xl-v1-healing.go
index 200229736..07e2f7fb1 100644
--- a/cmd/xl-v1-healing.go
+++ b/cmd/xl-v1-healing.go
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Minio Cloud Storage, (C) 2016 Minio, Inc.
+ * Minio Cloud Storage, (C) 2016, 2017, 2018 Minio, Inc.
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -30,22 +30,50 @@ func (xl xlObjects) HealFormat(ctx context.Context, dryRun bool) (madmin.HealRes
 	return madmin.HealResultItem{}, errors.Trace(NotImplemented{})
 }
 
+// checks for bucket if it exists in writeQuorum number of disks, this call
+// is only used by healBucket().
+func checkBucketExistsInQuorum(storageDisks []StorageAPI, bucketName string) (err error) {
+	var wg = &sync.WaitGroup{}
+
+	errs := make([]error, len(storageDisks))
+	// Prepare object creation in a all disks
+	for index, disk := range storageDisks {
+		if disk == nil {
+			continue
+		}
+		wg.Add(1)
+		go func(index int, disk StorageAPI) {
+			defer wg.Done()
+			_, errs[index] = disk.StatVol(bucketName)
+		}(index, disk)
+	}
+	wg.Wait()
+
+	writeQuorum := len(storageDisks)/2 + 1
+	return reduceWriteQuorumErrs(errs, nil, writeQuorum)
+}
+
 // Heals a bucket if it doesn't exist on one of the disks, additionally
 // also heals the missing entries for bucket metadata files
 // `policy.json, notification.xml, listeners.json`.
 func (xl xlObjects) HealBucket(ctx context.Context, bucket string, dryRun bool) (
 	results []madmin.HealResultItem, err error) {
 
-	if err = checkBucketExist(bucket, xl); err != nil {
-		return nil, err
+	storageDisks := xl.getDisks()
+
+	// Check if bucket doesn't exist in writeQuorum number of disks, if quorum
+	// number of disks returned that bucket does not exist we quickly return
+	// and do not proceed to heal.
+	if err = checkBucketExistsInQuorum(storageDisks, bucket); err != nil {
+		return results, err
 	}
 
 	// get write quorum for an object
-	writeQuorum := len(xl.getDisks())/2 + 1
+	writeQuorum := len(storageDisks)/2 + 1
 
 	// Heal bucket.
 	var result madmin.HealResultItem
-	result, err = healBucket(xl.getDisks(), bucket, writeQuorum, dryRun)
+	result, err = healBucket(storageDisks, bucket, writeQuorum, dryRun)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
@@ -84,17 +112,17 @@ func healBucket(storageDisks []StorageAPI, bucket string, writeQuorum int,
 		// Make a volume inside a go-routine.
 		go func(index int, disk StorageAPI) {
 			defer wg.Done()
-			if _, err := disk.StatVol(bucket); err != nil {
-				if errors.Cause(err) == errDiskNotFound {
+			if _, serr := disk.StatVol(bucket); serr != nil {
+				if errors.Cause(serr) == errDiskNotFound {
 					beforeState[index] = madmin.DriveStateOffline
 					afterState[index] = madmin.DriveStateOffline
-					dErrs[index] = err
+					dErrs[index] = serr
 					return
 				}
-				if errors.Cause(err) != errVolumeNotFound {
+				if errors.Cause(serr) != errVolumeNotFound {
 					beforeState[index] = madmin.DriveStateCorrupt
 					afterState[index] = madmin.DriveStateCorrupt
-					dErrs[index] = err
+					dErrs[index] = serr
 					return
 				}