Certain BIOS configurations, including those on my primary computer, will silently deprioritize drives which have been disconnected. Consequently, after disconnecting the drives so that an attempted Windows install to an external hard drive can’t possibly mess up their MBR, it is important to disconnect any other USB drives simultaneously with reconnecting the primary RAID. Failure to do so will result in a failure of the sort INSERT SYSTEM DISC. BOOT RECORD CORRUPTED. This can be terrifying.
In other news, I’m giving up installing Windows on the external drive. I’ve passed the point where the expense of time and effort has bypassed the expected benefit. I can’t help but be annoyed–doing this with linux takes no effort–but I guess I can’t be too disappointed. Microsoft software is designed to make profits for Microsoft, not to benefit the user. It’s useless to be disappointed each time this manifests itself.
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