Mapping a network drive in Windows so that it only reconnects when accessed?

I have a Windows 8 fileserver that is configured to sleep after a period of going unused, and configured to wake-on-lan. I would like to configure some of the Windows 7 systems on the network to map drives from the fileserver. That's easy enough through the standard methods.

The problem is that I while I want the mapping to persist between login sessions, I do not want to wake the fileserver every time someone logs in. I only want it to wake the server if they actually try to access the mapped drive.

When I set the drive to reconnect at logon, the mapping persists, but the fileserver is woken up on every login. If I do not set the drive to reconnect at logon, then the mapping does not persist.

Is there a way to get both of my goals?

Solution 1:

After a few days it became apparent that not only was the fileserver being awoken each time any computer with a mapped drive booted, but it was also periodically awoken by random traffic from the router. That wasn't acceptable, so I made some adjustments. I ended up adjusting the settings on the fileserver so that it only wakes up in response to a Magic Packet. Then I equipped all workstations on the network with a utility for sending magic packets to the server (you can find a number of these online - I made my own so that it could be a single-click sending operation always directed at the server's MAC address).

So, now the server only wakes when a magic packet is sent. That removes the issue of it awakening every time a system with a mapped drive boots up, and allows the drives to stay mapped permanently (they are just unreachable until the server is awoken).