diff --git a/compat/basename.c b/compat/basename.c
index d8f8a3c6dc..9f00421a26 100644
--- a/compat/basename.c
+++ b/compat/basename.c
@@ -4,9 +4,7 @@
 char *gitbasename (char *path)
 {
 	const char *base;
-	/* Skip over the disk name in MSDOS pathnames. */
-	if (has_dos_drive_prefix(path))
-		path += 2;
+	skip_dos_drive_prefix(&path);
 	for (base = path; *path; path++) {
 		if (is_dir_sep(*path))
 			base = path + 1;
diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index f74da235f5..10a51c058b 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -1917,26 +1917,22 @@ pid_t waitpid(pid_t pid, int *status, int options)
 
 int mingw_offset_1st_component(const char *path)
 {
-	int offset = 0;
-	if (has_dos_drive_prefix(path))
-		offset = 2;
+	char *pos = (char *)path;
 
 	/* unc paths */
-	else if (is_dir_sep(path[0]) && is_dir_sep(path[1])) {
-
+	if (!skip_dos_drive_prefix(&pos) &&
+			is_dir_sep(pos[0]) && is_dir_sep(pos[1])) {
 		/* skip server name */
-		char *pos = strpbrk(path + 2, "\\/");
+		pos = strpbrk(pos + 2, "\\/");
 		if (!pos)
 			return 0; /* Error: malformed unc path */
 
 		do {
 			pos++;
 		} while (*pos && !is_dir_sep(*pos));
-
-		offset = pos - path;
 	}
 
-	return offset + is_dir_sep(path[offset]);
+	return pos + is_dir_sep(*pos) - path;
 }
 
 int xutftowcsn(wchar_t *wcs, const char *utfs, size_t wcslen, int utflen)
diff --git a/compat/mingw.h b/compat/mingw.h
index 738865c6c0..9b5db4ecc1 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.h
+++ b/compat/mingw.h
@@ -358,7 +358,15 @@ HANDLE winansi_get_osfhandle(int fd);
  * git specific compatibility
  */
 
-#define has_dos_drive_prefix(path) (isalpha(*(path)) && (path)[1] == ':')
+#define has_dos_drive_prefix(path) \
+	(isalpha(*(path)) && (path)[1] == ':' ? 2 : 0)
+static inline int mingw_skip_dos_drive_prefix(char **path)
+{
+	int ret = has_dos_drive_prefix(*path);
+	*path += ret;
+	return ret;
+}
+#define skip_dos_drive_prefix mingw_skip_dos_drive_prefix
 #define is_dir_sep(c) ((c) == '/' || (c) == '\\')
 static inline char *mingw_find_last_dir_sep(const char *path)
 {
diff --git a/git-compat-util.h b/git-compat-util.h
index 0feeae2983..38397d7afb 100644
--- a/git-compat-util.h
+++ b/git-compat-util.h
@@ -335,6 +335,14 @@ static inline int git_has_dos_drive_prefix(const char *path)
 #define has_dos_drive_prefix git_has_dos_drive_prefix
 #endif
 
+#ifndef skip_dos_drive_prefix
+static inline int git_skip_dos_drive_prefix(char **path)
+{
+	return 0;
+}
+#define skip_dos_drive_prefix git_skip_dos_drive_prefix
+#endif
+
 #ifndef is_dir_sep
 static inline int git_is_dir_sep(int c)
 {
diff --git a/path.c b/path.c
index 38f2ebd6bf..747d6da2c8 100644
--- a/path.c
+++ b/path.c
@@ -544,13 +544,10 @@ const char *relative_path(const char *in, const char *prefix,
 	else if (!prefix_len)
 		return in;
 
-	if (have_same_root(in, prefix)) {
+	if (have_same_root(in, prefix))
 		/* bypass dos_drive, for "c:" is identical to "C:" */
-		if (has_dos_drive_prefix(in)) {
-			i = 2;
-			j = 2;
-		}
-	} else {
+		i = j = has_dos_drive_prefix(in);
+	else {
 		return in;
 	}
 
@@ -703,11 +700,10 @@ const char *remove_leading_path(const char *in, const char *prefix)
 int normalize_path_copy_len(char *dst, const char *src, int *prefix_len)
 {
 	char *dst0;
+	int i;
 
-	if (has_dos_drive_prefix(src)) {
+	for (i = has_dos_drive_prefix(src); i > 0; i--)
 		*dst++ = *src++;
-		*dst++ = *src++;
-	}
 	dst0 = dst;
 
 	if (is_dir_sep(*src)) {