[junkiepilot]

I have my Main XBMC Client Upstairs (Server). This PC has all of media locally stored. This local media is currently shared across the network.

Downstairs I have an XBMC Client with no local media, i simply add sources from the network shares from the above machine.

The Server PC is shutdown every night and then restarted in the morning. The Trouble is that the client downstairs loses its connection to the shares and requires rebooting in order to regain access to them.

Any tip on how to prevent this?

[HenryFord]

Nope, no way - this is a windows-issue: If the smb-share goes away, Windows will notice and "unmounts" the network-share until you manually re-add it (you don't 'have' to reboot, you should just be able to reconnect the shares by opening them). You cannot circumvent this.

You are probably able to instruct your media-server to shutdown the other machine when it goes down (dunno what Windows you are running on the server-side, but generally this is possible) and bring it back up as soon as the server comes back (that is easily done through a magic-packet - ie WOL). Would that be sufficent? I could provide instructions how to do that (but you need to tell me what Windows you are using server- and client-side).

Edit:
Another approach would be to write a simple batch-script that remounts the drives - take a look at "net use" in the console to remove and add mappings. I would suggest you first remove the mappings within the batch script and then reset them - that should work out (to delete a mapping "net use x: /delete") where x is the drive-letter of the to-be-destroyed mapping.

[rocketpants]

Would making a junction (XP) or a symlink (win7) help with this?

I used to have to use junctions in XP for an external drive as it kept getting lost. I just set the source to the junction rather than external drive and had no problems.

[junkiepilot]

Thanks for your suggestions, I actually found a fix. On the client I had a mapped network drive to the network shares which I was using to add sources. Windows was losing this mapping when the server was shut down. Instead I simply added the sources as a smb path so that they do not rely on drive mapping. Works like a charm.