diff --git a/dvc/exceptions.py b/dvc/exceptions.py
index 1a167117ad..62c0a34669 100644
--- a/dvc/exceptions.py
+++ b/dvc/exceptions.py
@@ -348,3 +348,8 @@ def __init__(self, path, external_repo_path, external_repo_url):
                 relpath(path, external_repo_path), external_repo_url
             )
         )
+
+
+class HTTPError(DvcException):
+    def __init__(self, code, reason):
+        super(HTTPError, self).__init__("'{} {}'".format(code, reason))
diff --git a/dvc/remote/http.py b/dvc/remote/http.py
index c224166254..98a1e50f55 100644
--- a/dvc/remote/http.py
+++ b/dvc/remote/http.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 
 from dvc.config import Config
 from dvc.config import ConfigError
-from dvc.exceptions import DvcException
+from dvc.exceptions import DvcException, HTTPError
 from dvc.progress import Tqdm
 from dvc.remote.base import RemoteBASE
 from dvc.scheme import Schemes
@@ -37,30 +37,26 @@ def __init__(self, repo, config):
             )
 
     def _download(self, from_info, to_file, name=None, no_progress_bar=False):
-        request = self._request("GET", from_info.url, stream=True)
+        response = self._request("GET", from_info.url, stream=True)
+        if response.status_code != 200:
+            raise HTTPError(response.status_code, response.reason)
         with Tqdm(
-            total=None if no_progress_bar else self._content_length(from_info),
+            total=None if no_progress_bar else self._content_length(response),
             leave=False,
             bytes=True,
             desc=from_info.url if name is None else name,
             disable=no_progress_bar,
         ) as pbar:
             with open(to_file, "wb") as fd:
-                for chunk in request.iter_content(chunk_size=self.CHUNK_SIZE):
+                for chunk in response.iter_content(chunk_size=self.CHUNK_SIZE):
                     fd.write(chunk)
-                    fd.flush()
                     pbar.update(len(chunk))
 
     def exists(self, path_info):
         return bool(self._request("HEAD", path_info.url))
 
-    def _content_length(self, url_or_request):
-        headers = getattr(
-            url_or_request,
-            "headers",
-            self._request("HEAD", url_or_request).headers,
-        )
-        res = headers.get("Content-Length")
+    def _content_length(self, response):
+        res = response.headers.get("Content-Length")
         return int(res) if res else None
 
     def get_file_checksum(self, path_info):
diff --git a/tests/func/test_repro.py b/tests/func/test_repro.py
index ae0727c144..4e46fdde90 100644
--- a/tests/func/test_repro.py
+++ b/tests/func/test_repro.py
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@
 from tests.func.test_data_cloud import get_ssh_url
 from tests.func.test_data_cloud import TEST_AWS_REPO_BUCKET
 from tests.func.test_data_cloud import TEST_GCP_REPO_BUCKET
-from tests.utils.httpd import StaticFileServer
+from tests.utils.httpd import StaticFileServer, ContentMD5Handler
 
 
 class TestRepro(TestDvc):
@@ -1176,7 +1176,7 @@ def test(self):
 
         self.dvc.remove("imported_file.dvc")
 
-        with StaticFileServer(handler="Content-MD5") as httpd:
+        with StaticFileServer(handler_class=ContentMD5Handler) as httpd:
             import_url = urljoin(self.get_remote(httpd.server_port), self.FOO)
             import_output = "imported_file"
             import_stage = self.dvc.imp_url(import_url, import_output)
diff --git a/tests/unit/remote/test_http.py b/tests/unit/remote/test_http.py
index 2b1ecdb07a..dbd54bcd15 100644
--- a/tests/unit/remote/test_http.py
+++ b/tests/unit/remote/test_http.py
@@ -1,7 +1,10 @@
 import pytest
 
 from dvc.config import ConfigError
+from dvc.exceptions import HTTPError
+from dvc.path_info import URLInfo
 from dvc.remote.http import RemoteHTTP
+from tests.utils.httpd import StaticFileServer
 
 
 def test_no_traverse_compatibility(dvc_repo):
@@ -13,3 +16,14 @@ def test_no_traverse_compatibility(dvc_repo):
 
     with pytest.raises(ConfigError):
         RemoteHTTP(dvc_repo, config)
+
+
+def test_download_fails_on_error_code(dvc_repo):
+    with StaticFileServer() as httpd:
+        url = "http://localhost:{}/".format(httpd.server_port)
+        config = {"url": url}
+
+        remote = RemoteHTTP(dvc_repo, config)
+
+        with pytest.raises(HTTPError):
+            remote._download(URLInfo(url) / "missing.txt", "missing.txt")
diff --git a/tests/utils/httpd.py b/tests/utils/httpd.py
index ff902e71a1..92027ae751 100644
--- a/tests/utils/httpd.py
+++ b/tests/utils/httpd.py
@@ -45,9 +45,8 @@ class ContentMD5Handler(TestRequestHandler):
 class StaticFileServer:
     _lock = threading.Lock()
 
-    def __init__(self, handler="etag"):
+    def __init__(self, handler_class=ETagHandler):
         self._lock.acquire()
-        handler_class = ETagHandler if handler == "etag" else ContentMD5Handler
         self._httpd = HTTPServer(("localhost", 0), handler_class)
         self._thread = None