diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index b518c58d..19cdcb6b 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ byobu (2.72) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
     share/man/man1/byobu.1: added a disk throughput notification
   * usr/bin/byobu-janitor: add hyphenation to the regex to allow for
     disk_io
+  * usr/lib/byobu/disk_io: improve MONITORED_DISK overriding
 
  -- Dustin Kirkland <kirkland@ubuntu.com>  Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:31:20 -0500
 
diff --git a/usr/lib/byobu/disk_io b/usr/lib/byobu/disk_io
index 55734ac3..b5e30cb6 100755
--- a/usr/lib/byobu/disk_io
+++ b/usr/lib/byobu/disk_io
@@ -20,15 +20,16 @@
 PKG="byobu"
 color 2>/dev/null || color() { true; }
 
-# Allow interface overrides in $HOME/.$PKG/status
-if [ -n "$MONITORED_DISK" ]; then
-	disk="$MONITORED_DISK"
-else
-	disk=$(df -h / | tail -n1 | sed -e "s/[0-9].*$//" -e "s:^.*/::")
-fi
+# Default to disk providing /, but let users override with MONITORED_DISK
+[ -z "$MONITORED_DISK" ] && MP="/" ||  MP="$MONITORED_DISK"
+case $MP in
+	/dev/*) disk="$MP" ;;
+	*) disk=$(grep -m 1 " $MP " /etc/mtab | sed -e "s: .*$::") ;;
+esac
+disk=$(echo "$disk" | sed -e "s: .*$::" -e "s:^.*/::" -e "s:[0-9]*$::")
 
 if [ "$1" = "--detail" ]; then
-	if [ -x /usr/bin/iostat ]; then
+	if which iostat >/dev/null; then
 		iostat -d -m -h
 	else
 		echo "Please install iostat if you want detailed information on your disk throughput"