diff --git a/debug/org.eclipse.cdt.debug.ui/src/org/eclipse/cdt/debug/internal/ui/breakpoints/BreakpointsMessages.properties b/debug/org.eclipse.cdt.debug.ui/src/org/eclipse/cdt/debug/internal/ui/breakpoints/BreakpointsMessages.properties
index dc6cf5c3f5c..8942d9a016e 100644
--- a/debug/org.eclipse.cdt.debug.ui/src/org/eclipse/cdt/debug/internal/ui/breakpoints/BreakpointsMessages.properties
+++ b/debug/org.eclipse.cdt.debug.ui/src/org/eclipse/cdt/debug/internal/ui/breakpoints/BreakpointsMessages.properties
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
 
 CBreakpointPropertyPage.0=Ignore count must be a nonnegative integer
 CBreakpointPropertyPage.file_system_button=File S&ystem...
-CBreakpointPropertyPage.fileName_errorMessage=Enter a file name:
+CBreakpointPropertyPage.fileName_errorMessage=Enter the absolute path to an existing file:
 CBreakpointPropertyPage.function_valueNotAvailable_label=Not available
 CBreakpointPropertyPage.function_label=Function name: 
 CBreakpointPropertyPage.function_value_errorMessage=Enter a function expression:
diff --git a/debug/org.eclipse.cdt.debug.ui/src/org/eclipse/cdt/debug/internal/ui/breakpoints/CBreakpointPropertyPage.java b/debug/org.eclipse.cdt.debug.ui/src/org/eclipse/cdt/debug/internal/ui/breakpoints/CBreakpointPropertyPage.java
index 80ef12f64a4..dcdf5d43ab0 100644
--- a/debug/org.eclipse.cdt.debug.ui/src/org/eclipse/cdt/debug/internal/ui/breakpoints/CBreakpointPropertyPage.java
+++ b/debug/org.eclipse.cdt.debug.ui/src/org/eclipse/cdt/debug/internal/ui/breakpoints/CBreakpointPropertyPage.java
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
  *******************************************************************************/
 package org.eclipse.cdt.debug.internal.ui.breakpoints;
 
+import java.io.File;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.List;
 
@@ -293,6 +294,22 @@ public class CBreakpointPropertyPage extends FieldEditorPreferencePage implement
 			});
 		}
 
+		@Override
+		protected boolean doCheckState() {
+			// Check that the file name supplied is absolute and exists so that we can 
+			// associate it to an IResource later for creating a breakpoint marker.
+			String stringValue = getStringValue();
+			if (stringValue == null) {
+				return false;
+			}
+			File sourceFile = new File(stringValue);
+			if (!sourceFile.isAbsolute() || !sourceFile.exists() || !sourceFile.isFile()) {
+				return false;
+			}
+
+			return super.doCheckState();
+		}
+		
 	}
 
     class WatchpointRangeFieldEditor extends IntegerFieldEditor {