Stop the quick start bar from emptying in XP

Question

At work, I am kind-of forced to use Windows XP. I am not a Windows user normally, so this might be an odd question, but here goes.

I have a couple of icons in what I think is called the 'Quick Launch Bar'. My Documents and settings folders are synchronized over the network at every logon / logoff.

Whenever I loose network connectivity for a couple of minutes, my quick launch bar empties. I have to unlock the task bar, remove the quick launch bar and re-add it to get my icons back.

Does anyone know of a way to prevent the emptying from happening? Or make re-adding it quicker? Maybe a batch file or something that can do this?