Reconnect to shared external drive

Hi all,

I have a problem of reconnecting to an external usb drive.

problem:
I have a 500Gb USB external drive that I use between work and home. At each location at least 2 computers need access to the drive. Everyday I connect this drive to the primary computer at the location. The primary computer can access the drive no problem. But all the other computers can't access it until I un-share and re-share the drive again on the primary computer.

My Setup:
Work - 1 primary PC + 1 laptop + 2 other PCs
Home - 1 primary PC + 1 laptop

External Drive
LaCie 500Gb USB external hard drive
NTFS

Primary computer
Windows XP Pro
assigned Drive Letter F:\ to external drive
Shares out the LaCie drive on its Drive Letter F:\
open all permissions to "Everyone" on the share
Firewall settings to trust all other computers
Simple File sharing enabled
Always On, never logs off.

Other Computers
Windows XP Pro
Map Network Drive letter G:\ to the shared LaCie
Checked reconnect at logon
Reconnect using same login/password as on primary computer
Firewall settings to trust all primary computers
Simple File sharing enabled
Always On. Only laptop gets turend off and re-login.

Notes:
I've tried using symlinks and sharing out folders instead of the LaCie's drive letter. The same problem occurs. I've tried a couple of other tweaks and my conclusion is that the problem is not the external drive nor the other computers. I've also tried using a script that I can manually invoke, but it only works sometimes.

I guess I haven't found the tweak or solution to make the primary computer re-do the share (F:\) after it has completed connecting the LaCie. Would be nice if Windows can do it automatically somehow.

Thanks in advance
pengster