[Samba] Disconnected network drive

[Paul Abrahams]

I have a couple of Linux directories that are being exported via Samba running 
under SuSE 10.0.  On the Windows side, each of them is assigned a (mapped) 
drive letter.  In the "My Computer" list they initially show up as 
"Disconnected Network Drive".  If I attempt to access a file within one of 
them, the access fails with an indication that the drive does not exist.  
(For example, if the drive letter is H:, doing "H:" from a C> prompt gives 
that message.)   However, if in Windows I click on the drive, I get to see 
its contents and the status changes to "Network Drive".  At that point the 
drive contents become available to my Windows applications.

I get this behavior on three different machines, all running Windows XP.  In 
the Windows drive mapping, I've checked the "Reconnect at Logon" box, but 
that makes no difference.

I'm guessing that the problem is on the Linux side since each Windows machine 
can access exported directories from other Windows machines without any 
difficulty.  It's only the drives exported from Linux that have the problem.

I can of course work around the problem by opening up My Computer when I start 
the Windows machine and clicking on the drive in question, but that should 
not be necessary.

Is this a known problem?  Is there a workaround or a fix?

Paul