WDTLER.EXE
The WDTLER utility allows for the enabling or disabling of the TLER parameter in the hard disk's firmware settings allowing the user to determine the best setting for his particular usage as either a stand-alone or RAID drive. This utility is written for DOS and you will require a DOS bootable disk with this utility on it to use it.
The WDTLER utility works on and makes changes to all the connected and compatible Western Digital hard drives to the computer. It is important to remember that any change will affect all the hard drives. If you only wish to change specific hard drives on your computer then you should disconnect the other hard drives before you use this utility, then reconnect them after you are finished.
The WDTLER utility comes with three batch files, TLERSCAN.BAT to get the current state of the TLER setting on all the hard drives, TLER-ON.BAT to Enable TLER, and TLER-OFF.BAT to Disable TLER. The included TLER-ON.BAT will set the Read & Write TLER time to 7 seconds. If you wish to use a custom timeout value, you can use the WDTLER.EXE utility directly with the -r# -w# parameters to specify how many seconds the Time Limit value should be.
Western Digital now claims that using the WDTLER.EXE tool on newer drives can damage the firmware and make the disk unusable. The WDTLER.EXE tool is no longer available from Western Digital, and new disks will not be able to have the TLER setting changed. RE disks are only suitable for RAID arrays and Caviar are only suitable for non-RAID use. The utility still works for older disks.
Below is the WDTLER output for Western Digital Caviar SE16 320 GB and 500 GB hard disk for the default TLER configuration before and after TLER has been Enabled.
Before - TLER Read & Write: Disabled
WDTLER Version 1.03 Copyright (C) 2004-2006 Western Digital Corporation Western Digital Time Limit Error Recovery Utility Model: WDC WD3200KS-00PFB0 Serial Number: WD-WCAPD1234567 Read TLER is disabled. Write TLER is disabled. Model: WDC WD3200KS-00PFB0 Serial Number: WD-WCAPD1234567 Read TLER is disabled. Write TLER is disabled. Model: WDC WD5000KS-00MNB0 Serial Number: WD-WMANU1234567 Read TLER is disabled. Write TLER is disabled. Model: WDC WD5000KS-00MNB0 Serial Number: WD-WMANU1234567 Read TLER is disabled. Write TLER is disabled.
After - TLER Read & Write: 7 seconds
Note: Western Digital (1.5TB Green Power) WD15EADS-00P8B0 (Nov 2009) drives do not support TLER. WD15EADS-00S2B0 (Feb 2010) models do support TLER.
Read more about this topic: Error Recovery Control, Western Digital Time Limit Error Recovery Utility