External HDD loses shared property on reconnect

[El Kot]

Here is the situation: There is one external WD MyBook HDD that is
connected to my laptop. Some of its folders are shared to the local
network, for backup and synchronization. It is always connected with the
same laptop, since it travels with me, and is used for backups from the
laptop when on the road. It is NTFS formatted.

Usually, I connect everything before booting up the laptop, and when XP
Pro starts, all settings of all folders on the external drive are the
way they were - the permissions, the shares etc., - all is as I left it.

However, if for some reason I boot the laptop, but connect the HD later,
the information about the shares is gone. The user permissions for the
folders (I have different permissions for different users depending on
folder) are all in place, and correct, but the shares are gone. The
folders are not shared.

I can, of course, restore the sharing manually. Or I can reboot the
laptop with the HDD attached - the share information will be restored.
Both, however, are annoying (I can't decide which is more annoying), and
this shouldn't be the case. How can the 'feature' be corrected?

I googled, and my feeble efforts found just one other such case. It
appears to have been solved, but as it is on the experts-exchange
website, I can't see what it is or if it makes sense.

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

Here is the situation: There is one external WD MyBook HDD that is
connected to my laptop. Some of its folders are shared to the local
network, for backup and synchronization. It is always connected with the
same laptop, since it travels with me, and is used for backups from the
laptop when on the road. It is NTFS formatted.

Usually, I connect everything before booting up the laptop, and when XP
Pro starts, all settings of all folders on the external drive are the way
they were - the permissions, the shares etc., - all is as I left it.

However, if for some reason I boot the laptop, but connect the HD later,
the information about the shares is gone. The user permissions for the
folders (I have different permissions for different users depending on
folder) are all in place, and correct, but the shares are gone. The
folders are not shared.

I can, of course, restore the sharing manually. Or I can reboot the laptop
with the HDD attached - the share information will be restored. Both,
however, are annoying (I can't decide which is more annoying), and this
shouldn't be the case. How can the 'feature' be corrected?

I googled, and my feeble efforts found just one other such case. It
appears to have been solved, but as it is on the experts-exchange website,
I can't see what it is or if it makes sense.

You could run a WMI script in the background that monitors Windows for the
arrival of a mass storage device. On arrival it issues a "net share" command
to restore your share(s).