diff --git a/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/migrate/MigrateH1to3Tool.java b/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/migrate/MigrateH1to3Tool.java
index 02a0cb83..e257a4f1 100644
--- a/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/migrate/MigrateH1to3Tool.java
+++ b/engine/src/main/java/org/archive/crawler/migrate/MigrateH1to3Tool.java
@@ -43,6 +43,8 @@ import org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils;
 import org.w3c.dom.Document;
 import org.w3c.dom.Node;
 import org.w3c.dom.NodeList;
+import org.xbill.DNS.SRVRecord;
+import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
 
 /**
  * Utility class which takes a H1 order.xml and creates a similar
@@ -71,14 +73,21 @@ public class MigrateH1to3Tool {
     }
     
 	public void instanceMain(String[] args) throws Exception {
-		if(args.length == 0) {
+		if(args.length < 2) {
 		    printHelp();
             return;
         }
-        
-        File sourceOrderXmlFile = new File(args[0]);
-		File destinationH3JobDir = new File(args[1]);
-        
+
+		String sourceOrderXmlFileArg = args[0];
+		String destinationH3JobDirArg = args[1];
+		
+		File sourceOrderXmlFile = new File(sourceOrderXmlFileArg);
+		if (!sourceOrderXmlFile.isFile()) {
+		    System.err.println("ERROR sourceOrderXmlFileArg is not a file: " + sourceOrderXmlFileArg);
+            System.exit(1);
+		}
+        File destinationH3JobDir = new File(destinationH3JobDirArg);
+
         destinationH3JobDir.mkdirs();
  
         System.out.println("H1 source: "+sourceOrderXmlFile.getAbsolutePath()); 
@@ -93,77 +102,91 @@ public class MigrateH1to3Tool {
         
         Map<String,String> migrateH1toH3Map = getMigrateMap(); 
         
-        Document sourceOrderXmlDom = DOCUMENT_BUILDER.parse(sourceOrderXmlFile);
-        Map<String,String> h1simpleSettings = flattenH1Order(sourceOrderXmlDom);
-        
-        List<String> notApplicable = new ArrayList<String>(); 
-        List<String> needsAttention = new ArrayList<String>();
-        int migrated = 0; 
-        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(); 
-        for(String key : h1simpleSettings.keySet()) {
-            String beanPath = migrateH1toH3Map.get(key);
-            String value = h1simpleSettings.get(key);
-            System.out.print("."); 
-            if(beanPath==null) {
-                // no equivalence rule
-                needsAttention.add(key+" "+value);  
-                continue; 
-            } 
-            if (beanPath.startsWith("$")) {
-                // rule indicates not-available/not-applicable
-                notApplicable.add(key+" "+value);
-                continue;
-            }  
-            if (beanPath.startsWith("*")) {
-                // TODO: needs special handling
-                if(beanPath.equals("*metadata.userAgentTemplate")) {
-                    splitH1userAgent(value,sb); 
-                    migrated += 2; 
-                } else {
+        try {
+            Document sourceOrderXmlDom = DOCUMENT_BUILDER.parse(sourceOrderXmlFile);
+
+            Map<String,String> h1simpleSettings = flattenH1Order(sourceOrderXmlDom);
+
+            List<String> notApplicable = new ArrayList<String>(); 
+            List<String> needsAttention = new ArrayList<String>();
+            int migrated = 0; 
+            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(); 
+            for(String key : h1simpleSettings.keySet()) {
+                String beanPath = migrateH1toH3Map.get(key);
+                String value = h1simpleSettings.get(key);
+                System.out.print("."); 
+                if(beanPath==null) {
+                    // no equivalence rule
                     needsAttention.add(key+" "+value);  
+                    continue; 
+                } 
+                if (beanPath.startsWith("$")) {
+                    // rule indicates not-available/not-applicable
+                    notApplicable.add(key+" "+value);
+                    continue;
+                }  
+                if (beanPath.startsWith("*")) {
+                    // TODO: needs special handling
+                    if(beanPath.equals("*metadata.userAgentTemplate")) {
+                        splitH1userAgent(value,sb); 
+                        migrated += 2; 
+                    } else {
+                        needsAttention.add(key+" "+value);  
+                    }
+                    continue;
+                } 
+                if (beanPath.startsWith("^")) {
+                    // uppercase to new enum-style
+                    value = value.toUpperCase();
+                    beanPath = beanPath.substring(1);
                 }
-                continue;
-            } 
-            if (beanPath.startsWith("^")) {
-                // uppercase to new enum-style
-                value = value.toUpperCase();
-                beanPath = beanPath.substring(1);
+                sb
+                .append(beanPath)
+                .append("=")
+                .append(value)
+                .append("\n");
+                migrated++; 
             }
-            sb
-             .append(beanPath)
-             .append("=")
-             .append(value)
-             .append("\n");
-            migrated++; 
+            System.out.println();
+            System.out.println(); 
+
+            // patch all overrides derived from H1 into H3 template
+            String beansCxml = template.replace("###MIGRATE_OVERRIDES###", sb.toString());
+
+            File targetBeansXmlFile = new File(destinationH3JobDir,"crawler-beans.cxml");
+            FileUtils.writeStringToFile(targetBeansXmlFile, beansCxml);
+
+            File sourceSeedsTxtFile = new File(sourceOrderXmlFile.getParentFile(), "seeds.txt");
+            File destinationSeedsTxtFile = new File(destinationH3JobDir, "seeds.txt");
+            
+            if (!sourceSeedsTxtFile.isFile()) {
+                System.err.println("ERROR sourceSeedsTxtFile not found: " + sourceSeedsTxtFile);
+                System.exit(1);
+            }
+            
+            FileUtils.copyFile(sourceSeedsTxtFile,destinationSeedsTxtFile);
+
+            System.out.println(notApplicable.size()+" settings skipped as not-applicable");
+            System.out.println("These are probably harmless, but if the following settings were");
+            System.out.println("important to your crawl process, investigate other options."); 
+            listProblems(notApplicable);
+            System.out.println();
+            System.out.println(needsAttention.size()+" settings may need attention");
+            System.out.println("Please review your original crawl and the created H3 job, for each");
+            System.out.println("of the following, and manually update as needed.");
+            listProblems(needsAttention);
+            System.out.println();
+            System.out.println(migrated +" H1 settings successfully migrated to H3 configuration");
+            System.out.println();
+            System.out.println("Review your converted crawler-beans.cxml at:");
+            System.out.println(targetBeansXmlFile.getAbsolutePath());
+
+        } catch (SAXException e) {
+            System.err.println("ERROR caught exception parsing input file: " 
+                    + e.getMessage() + "\n");
+            e.printStackTrace();
         }
-        System.out.println();
-        System.out.println(); 
-        
-        // patch all overrides derived from H1 into H3 template
-        String beansCxml = template.replace("###MIGRATE_OVERRIDES###", sb.toString());
-        
-        File targetBeansXmlFile = new File(destinationH3JobDir,"crawler-beans.cxml");
-        FileUtils.writeStringToFile(targetBeansXmlFile, beansCxml);
-        
-        FileUtils.copyFile(
-                    new File(sourceOrderXmlFile.getParentFile(), "seeds.txt"), 
-                    new File(destinationH3JobDir, "seeds.txt"));
-        
-        
-        System.out.println(notApplicable.size()+" settings skipped as not-applicable");
-        System.out.println("These are probably harmless, but if the following settings were");
-        System.out.println("important to your crawl process, investigate other options."); 
-        listProblems(notApplicable);
-        System.out.println();
-        System.out.println(needsAttention.size()+" settings may need attention");
-        System.out.println("Please review your original crawl and the created H3 job, for each");
-        System.out.println("of the following, and manually update as needed.");
-        listProblems(needsAttention);
-        System.out.println();
-        System.out.println(migrated +" H1 settings successfully migrated to H3 configuration");
-        System.out.println();
-        System.out.println("Review your converted crawler-beans.cxml at:");
-        System.out.println(targetBeansXmlFile.getAbsolutePath());
+
 	}
 
     protected void listProblems(List<String> problems) {