"Could Not Reconnect All Network Drives"

I have a home network that includes an XP-based home server of sorts. I hang my Drobo off that server and share it to my home Network. On all my other PC's I access it as my "N" drive (N for network). This has worked fine through XP, Vista and even Windows 7 installations on the same PC (discussed below) for some time. But now whenever I boot up my system with Windows 7 I get the"Could not reconnect all network drives" error every time I boot. When I click on the "N:" drive through Windows Explorer or a link on the desktop W7B asks me for a userid and password. I can literally type anything in the Userid field (complete gibberish works) and add a password or not. When I do, my shared drobo connects as N: (I refer this as a manual connection for the rest of this post). Thereafter all my apps can use, see, change files on N: . All is golden until my next reboot.

It's important for me that the system automatically connect because a dozen or so of my apps routinely interact with my "N:" drive. For example I use the program Second Copy to automatically backup several directories and drives across my network to my Drobo on N:. That app won't work until N: is connected. My iTunes library is situated on my Drobo. iTunes won't see my iTunes library and gives error messages until I manually connect the N: drive and on and on and on from app to app. My N: drive is my data repository for all my devices.Here's the rub. When I first installed W7B (on the exact same PC) I installed it as an upgrade to my then current Vista x64 installation. After that upgrade, I had no problem. That N: drive auto connected on bootup just as it had when I was running Vista on the same PC and just as it had when I ran XP before on the same PC. Subsequently I chose to do a fresh W7B install on the exact same PC that I had previously installed the WB7 as a Vista x64 upgrade. That's when this problem arose.

I have NOT been able to get my shared N: Drobo drive hosted off an XP computer to automatically connect when I boot up. I have changed NOTHING on the XP server. I have changed nothing on Drobo (though I did try "Unsharing" and "Resharing" the drobo on the XP server to reset / update directory permissions - this did nothing). My other networked Vista/XP PCs continue to access it as their N: drive without incident. It is only my clean-install W7B PC (and a tablet PC I did a fresh W7B install on) that cannot automatically connect to that shared network drive on boot.What is truly strange is that on this EXACT same PC the share worked flawlessly (as always) after an upgrade from Vista x64, but when I did a fresh/clean install on the EXACT same PC, the problem raised its head.

- All PC's on my network are on the same workgroup.

- The problem persists whether or not I have a homegroup activated

- I have no problems accessing shared drives BETWEEN PCs running WB7

- I have no problem accessing the shared Drobo on the XP PC from other XP/Vista PCs

- all pcs are behind a NAT router so firewalls are turned off

- no anti virus software is running on any PC (not that anti-virus software ever caused an issue here before)

- I have tried changing most of the Advanced Sharing Settings in:

Start --> network and sharing center --> change advanced sharing settings including turning on and off 'password protected sharing'

- When I mapped my network drive to N: I did it using the proper '\serverdrobo' naming convention

- I note that when I click on the "Browse..." button my networked XP server does not show up as an available network device (though I can still connect to it by manually typing \serverdrobo

- I, of course, always check the 'Reconnect at logon' checkbox on the "Map Network Drive" dialogue box

- Whether or not I check the "Connect using different credentials' checkbox on the "Map Network Drive" dialogue box makes no difference.

- Under the 'Computer' item on the left side of Windows Explorer, the N: drive shows up (before manual connection) with a red x through it.

- I note that under the 'Network' item on the left side of Windows Explorer, only W7B PCs show up even though W7B shows all network PC's even XP PCs in the Network Map

- Clicking on the 'Remember my credentials' checkbox on the "Enter Network Password" screen when I manually connect makes no difference - WB7 clearly doesn't remember them.

- NOTE: I do NOT login with the same userid and password on the server and on my WB7 machine. I never had to before (including when WB7 on this PC was an upgrade from Vista) so I can't imagine that that is the problem. Note, all other PCs on my network access the shared Drobo from ANY userid on any other PC

Control Panel --> Network and Internet --> Network Map, (after manually connecting N: by clicking on it, that is)

The last thing I did (as mentioned in parenthesis above)(though I did try "Unsharing" and "Resharing" the drobo on the XP server to reset / update directory permissions - this did nothing)was to copy files from N: (after a manual connection) to my C: drive. When I connected that last time it asked me, as it does/did sometimes, though not always, for a userid and password. I entered the server's userid (different from my W7B's userid) and password and checked the 'remember my credentials' field, all as I had many times before). the system crashed when I was trying to do that transfer of files which lead me to reboot (pressing the power button to shut down and restart). The next time it started I didn't even notice that the N: had connected at first (I was on to a new project and wasn't paying attention to the boot process). About 15 minutes in I noticed there was no red x beside the mapped N: drive in Windows Explorer as there always had been in the past. Since I was pretty sure I hadn't done a manual connection I decided to reboot and test ... Lo and behold, N: automagically connected at boot and I don't know why. I created a save point so I can get back here if something goes awry. For now I'm just happy it works. I don't know how to replicate it. I NOTE THAT THE PROBLEM STILL SUBSISTS ON MY TABLET RUNNING W7B, so I am now confident the problem has nothing to do with how my XP server is configured. It has something to do with the way W7B is configured.