diff --git a/IPython/html/services/notebooks/filenbmanager.py b/IPython/html/services/notebooks/filenbmanager.py
index 2f841eb..b5693e1 100644
--- a/IPython/html/services/notebooks/filenbmanager.py
+++ b/IPython/html/services/notebooks/filenbmanager.py
@@ -92,6 +92,11 @@ class FileNotebookManager(NotebookManager):
                 i = i+1
         return name
 
+    def os_path_exists(self, path):
+        """Check that the given file system path is valid on this machine."""
+        if os.path.exists(path) is False:
+            raise web.HTTPError(404, "No file or directory found.")
+        
     def notebook_exists(self, name, path='/'):
         """Returns a True if the notebook exists. Else, returns False.
 
diff --git a/IPython/html/services/notebooks/tests/test_notebooks_api.py b/IPython/html/services/notebooks/tests/test_notebooks_api.py
index 50236a4..ac609b7 100644
--- a/IPython/html/services/notebooks/tests/test_notebooks_api.py
+++ b/IPython/html/services/notebooks/tests/test_notebooks_api.py
@@ -31,8 +31,8 @@ class APITest(NotebookTestBase):
         #url, nb = self.mknb()
         url = self.notebook_url()
         nb = requests.post(url+'/')
-        print nb.text
         data = nb.json()
+        status = nb.status_code
         assert isinstance(data, dict)
         self.assertIn('name', data)
         self.assertIn('path', data)
diff --git a/IPython/html/services/sessions/handlers.py b/IPython/html/services/sessions/handlers.py
index a72ed5e..081d64e 100644
--- a/IPython/html/services/sessions/handlers.py
+++ b/IPython/html/services/sessions/handlers.py
@@ -119,7 +119,7 @@ class SessionHandler(IPythonHandler):
 _session_id_regex = r"(?P<session_id>\w+-\w+-\w+-\w+-\w+)"
 
 default_handlers = [
-    (r"api/sessions/%s" % _session_id_regex, SessionHandler),
-    (r"api/sessions",  SessionRootHandler)
+    (r"/api/sessions/%s" % _session_id_regex, SessionHandler),
+    (r"/api/sessions",  SessionRootHandler)
 ]