postmarketOS, mobian, etc.. these are 'real' linux distros that work without the android parts. as your device doesn't have a (near-)mainline kernel port i believe you can boot postmarketOS with the stock downstream kernel, though many peripherals won't function.
halium based distros like ubports and droidian use a part of the android userspace to make those peripherals work, which can be better if mainline is not possible.
usually works well enough, but some aren't built great and can have stability issues. i usually have the thing running for a few months with light tasks to ensure it's stable before putting it into critical use.
external usb-sata enclosures cause a lot of issues, so i test those as well.
can confirm i see this every time on multiple win7 and 10 machines, making the disk offline and online again on diskmgmt.msc always works. right click and eject in explorer also usually works but not always.
sounds erotic /jk