diff --git a/path.c b/path.c
index 52d889c88e..efcedafba6 100644
--- a/path.c
+++ b/path.c
@@ -991,7 +991,7 @@ const char *remove_leading_path(const char *in, const char *prefix)
  *
  * Performs the following normalizations on src, storing the result in dst:
  * - Ensures that components are separated by '/' (Windows only)
- * - Squashes sequences of '/'.
+ * - Squashes sequences of '/' except "//server/share" on Windows
  * - Removes "." components.
  * - Removes ".." components, and the components the precede them.
  * Returns failure (non-zero) if a ".." component appears as first path
@@ -1014,17 +1014,22 @@ 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;
+	const char *end;
 
-	for (i = has_dos_drive_prefix(src); i > 0; i--)
-		*dst++ = *src++;
+	/*
+	 * Copy initial part of absolute path: "/", "C:/", "//server/share/".
+	 */
+	end = src + offset_1st_component(src);
+	while (src < end) {
+		char c = *src++;
+		if (is_dir_sep(c))
+			c = '/';
+		*dst++ = c;
+	}
 	dst0 = dst;
 
-	if (is_dir_sep(*src)) {
-		*dst++ = '/';
-		while (is_dir_sep(*src))
-			src++;
-	}
+	while (is_dir_sep(*src))
+		src++;
 
 	for (;;) {
 		char c = *src;