diff --git a/src/Core/ServiceWrapper/Main.cs b/src/Core/ServiceWrapper/Main.cs
index d15e0dd..e035663 100644
--- a/src/Core/ServiceWrapper/Main.cs
+++ b/src/Core/ServiceWrapper/Main.cs
@@ -455,6 +455,13 @@ namespace winsw
                 Log.Debug("Completed. Exit code is 0");
                 return 0;
             }
+            catch (InvalidDataException e)
+            {
+                string message = "The configuration file cound not be loaded. " + e.Message;
+                Log.Fatal(message, e);
+                Console.Error.WriteLine(message);
+                return -1;
+            }
             catch (WmiException e)
             {
                 Log.Fatal("WMI Operation failure: " + e.ErrorCode, e);
diff --git a/src/Core/WinSWCore/ServiceDescriptor.cs b/src/Core/WinSWCore/ServiceDescriptor.cs
index 511dbb8..bcaf140 100755
--- a/src/Core/WinSWCore/ServiceDescriptor.cs
+++ b/src/Core/WinSWCore/ServiceDescriptor.cs
@@ -63,7 +63,14 @@ namespace winsw
             BaseName = baseName;
             BasePath = Path.Combine(d.FullName, BaseName);
 
-            dom.Load(BasePath + ".xml");
+            try
+            {
+                dom.Load(BasePath + ".xml");
+            }
+            catch (XmlException e)
+            {
+                throw new InvalidDataException(e.Message, e);
+            }
 
             // register the base directory as environment variable so that future expansions can refer to this.
             Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable("BASE", d.FullName);