How to prevent file expiration due to an unmounted disk?

I've run into this problem more than once. A drive fails on a linux client and it doesn't remount at the next reboot. The user is unaware due to lack of use of the drive/directory. The files are marked inactive and are expired after 45 days as the directory is now empty. Sometime later, the user notices the failure and asks for the files to be restored, which have now been expired and gone. How do I prevent this? Thanks.
M