diff --git a/reference.go b/reference.go
index ae04835..d4d2eca 100644
--- a/reference.go
+++ b/reference.go
@@ -30,6 +30,8 @@
 	"github.com/xeipuuv/gojsonpointer"
 	"net/url"
 	"path/filepath"
+	"runtime"
+	"strings"
 )
 
 const (
@@ -100,7 +102,18 @@
 	}
 
 	r.HasFileScheme = refUrl.Scheme == "file"
-	r.HasFullFilePath = filepath.IsAbs(refUrl.Path)
+	if runtime.GOOS == "windows" {
+		// on Windows, a file URL may have an extra leading slash, and if it
+		// doesn't then its first component will be treated as the host by the
+		// Go runtime
+		if refUrl.Host == "" && strings.HasPrefix(refUrl.Path, "/") {
+			r.HasFullFilePath = filepath.IsAbs(refUrl.Path[1:])
+		} else {
+			r.HasFullFilePath = filepath.IsAbs(refUrl.Host + refUrl.Path)
+		}
+	} else {
+		r.HasFullFilePath = filepath.IsAbs(refUrl.Path)
+	}
 
 	// invalid json-pointer error means url has no json-pointer fragment. simply ignore error
 	r.referencePointer, _ = gojsonpointer.NewJsonPointer(refUrl.Fragment)