Can we attached files here? I'm not going to host it on my server for long.

http://70.120.178.168/wd/WDTLER.zip

Please do not linkify.

Message from WD:

Thank you for your reply.

Attached is the WD TLER Utility. You’ll need to perform the following steps to disable TLER on our SATA drives.

1.Create a DOS-bootable floppy

Title: Create an MS-DOS Startup Disk
URL: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/learnmore/tips/renken1.mspx

2.Unzip the contents of “WDTLER.zip” to the boot floppy
3.Insert the boot floppy into the computer with the WD SATA drives
4.Boot the computer off the floppy
5.At the DOS prompt, type “TLER-OFF” and press ENTER
6.Wait for the program to finish and then remove the boot floppy
7.Restart the computer with the WD SATA drives


Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Western Digital Service and Support
http://support.wdc.com

I have not tried it and I may not since my drives will be in a RAID 1 setup, but trying to verify if TLER should be on or off when doing RAID 1 on an NForce4 for AMD.

jnmunsey, thanks for the download. I wrote WD earlier and got a response today after waiting for 4 days. They're saying that "The TLER feature is built into the drive and it cannot be disabled." The support guy wrote a big paragraph explaining to me what TLER means. Basically he's saying that Enterprise edition drives should only be used in RAID config, and Desktop edition drives should be used in non-RAID configs.

It seems that for some reason, WD does not want the RE2 drives to be sold to people who would turn off TLER. Maybe it's because SE drives only carry 3 year warranty and sell for about the same price so they figure SE drives require less support and would be more profitable that way? I dunno.

Anyway, I unzipped the WDTLER.zip file, and glanced through the files. One thing that's interesting is that the DOS script specifies HDAccess.exe to be run first. But if you use notepad to look into HDAccess.exe, apparently it's a utility written by 3Ware. If you google this filename, this HDAccess.exe seems to be used to update WD drives connected to a 3Ware RAID controller. So I don't know if HDAccess needs to be run first. Or should we just run WDTLER.exe directly if the drive is not hooked up to a RAID controller?

Here's the help screen for wdtler:

F:\\WD_TLER\\WDTLER>wdtler /?
WDTLER Version 1.03
Copyright (C) 2004-2006 Western Digital Corporation
Western Digital Time Limit Error Recovery Utility
Using DT32.LIB version 08A

Syntax:
WDTLER [-R<time>] [-W<time>] [-?]
Parameters:
-R<time> Set read TLER seconds. Use 0 to disable.
-W<time> Set write TLER seconds. Use 0 to disable.

/? This help screen.

Apparently, to turn on TLER, you run it with -R7 and -W7. To turn it off, you run with -R0 and -W0. Then there's a mode called scan where you run it with no argument. I think scan may be the mode you're looking for where you can find out whether TLER is on or off. That would be my guess.

http://rapidshare.com/files/2821776/WDTLER.zip.html

sketch50 said:Has anyone successfully used this utility to disable TLER on the WD5000YS?

This utility looks to be pretty straight forward. The only reason I can see WD giving you a hard time about actually getting the tool is that it makes it all so easy to get the 5 year warranty.

AuricG said:Thanks for the TLER Utility.

Note that while the "On" batch sets both Read & Write to 7 seconds, the factory setting is actually r7 & w0 (write disabled).

So, if for normal use you choose to disable both (or more accurately disable Read and leave Write disabled) then later want to configure for RAID use, be sure to then set Write appropriately rather than blindly enabling it.

AuricG, did you have to run HDAccess.exe first, or did you just run WDTLER.exe?

Okay, I finally used wdtler to turn off TLER on my WD5000YS and it worked fine. Used the command "wdtler -r0" as AuricG suggested. Thanks to Jnmunsey for posting it.

DCAC said:Any way to run that utility off a bootable USB thumb drive?

First, make your USB drive bootable by following these instructions. Then copy the WDTLER.exe program file to the USB drive.

Is the 5 year warranty legit? Not that I'm likely to keep a drive for that long but I guess it would be good to have just in case. The Caviar version is $169 so I'm probably just going to get a couple of those.