Windows Vista Retaining Share info on USB drive

I am using an external HDD connected via USB. It seems that now, whenever I switch off, the previously defined settings for Sharing, such as the Share name, Permissions and so on are lost and the drive returns to the default values.

I seem to recall that on my previous XP box the external drive effectively retained this information.

Indeed, I suspect that this drive also did so at one time. When I initially configured this box, (Vista), then the drive in question was allocated drive J, but at some time later this port was 'taken over' by my printer, which was installed after the initial configuration. (J is still classed as a drive and only appears in the Windows Explorer pane when the printer is activated - as you would expect.)

The HDD is always allocated drive K, as the next available slot.

It's not desperate, clearly, but it is a minor inconvenience to have to re-enter the share details each time I log on and need access to the drive from another computer.

Is this the way it behaves by default? Perhaps I was lucky in the distant past, but, who knows.