Western Digital Time-Limited Error Recovery (TLER) with RAID and SE, SE16, GP Models

I just received a couple of new 2TB WD20EADS:
Model Number: WDC WD20EADS-00R6B0
Firmware Revision: 01.00A01
Manufacturing date on both drives was 24 DEC 2009 (seems like they've been lying around for a while).
Both drives enabled TLER without a problem and will be paired with a couple of older WD20EADS-00R6B0's (manufacturing date 19 MAY 2010) that I already had TLER enabled on to form a 4x2TB RAID5.
I'm also waiting for 4 more WD15EADS's (have 4x00R6B0 right now) and hopefully these will enable TLER as well since they'll all be part of a RAID5 on a 3WARE 9690SA-8I.
 
So is there a consistent result as to any model numbers that specifically are not modifiable? Or was this just all FUD and none of them actually changed
 
jbrukardt said:
So is there a consistent result as to any model numbers that specifically are not modifiable? Or was this just all FUD and none of them actually changed
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I'd like to know this, too. Perhaps it was just a particular firmware revision(s) that were problematic. Or perhaps WD decided that disabling TLER was a dumb idea and hurt their market share.
 
I'm not a 100% sure about this, however I believe there are two different versions of the WDTLER program floating around. If memory serves me right, I first found version 1.00 and later an updated version 1.03!

When you try to update your drives with WDTLER, make sure that you use version 1.03.

I updated 52 WD20EADS drives. All but one are 32S2B0 drives, the exception is one 00S2B0 drive. Almost all are manufactured on 06JAN2010 except for one which was manufactured on 05JAN2010 and the 00S2B0 was manufactured on 17NOV2009. I purchased all of them at the same time as a single batch. Took some time to update all of the drives with WDTLER and WDIDLE3 as I had to do them in batches of 2 at a time... I made a bootable USB stick and added a small batch file to help with the updating.

Another interesting fact is that although they seem to have been manufactured at the same time, 3 drives in the batch had a different firmware revision (04.05G04), the rest of them are all at 01.00A01. The odd part is that the lower serial numbered drives have the 04.05G04 firmware... go figure that one out!

Anyway, I thought I post this here to help some other folks.
 
treadstone, you have convinced me to go to Best Buy and buy a couple to test out TLER. Do you have a download link for WDTler 1.03?
 
Sorry mate, I don't remember where I got that version from, all I remember is that originally I had a different version (1.00) and I used version 1.03 on all the drives without any issues.

I just did a quick google search, this should be the file you need I think:

http://shifteightgeneration.com/system/files/wdtler.ZIP

I didn't actually try that file again, I jut compared the actual file size and it is the same as the one I used.
 
Updated all 52 WD20EADS drives with WDTLER and WDIDLE3 as well as firmware upgrades and performance test on 3 different firmware versions. Still have to compare the HDTune results of all the different tests I did after each firmware change, but at least I have all 52 drives with APM support now. Did this last Friday evening, man that was a LOT of HDD swapping to get that done ;)
 
enginurd said:
time traveling HDDs... awesome. :p
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Hehe, yeah, my HDDs do enjoy their quantum leaps in time, or maybe it's just me showing signs of timewear myself...

Anyway, I got my other four WD15EADS today (00S2B0), manufacturing date was 14 FEB 2010 and they all enabled TLER without a hitch.

Could this talk about disabled TLER-editing in drives be empty rumors or what? I still haven't come across a single confirmed person that actually failed to change these settings.

I read the whole thread a while ago and I might do it again to see if it'll answer my next question but... has anybody tried this on the new EARS-drives? The ones with 4kb sectors? Maybe there's something special there?

For everybody thinking about getting a set of the EADS-drives and run them in an array, I say go for it.
 
treadstone said:
Most RAID controllers are not compatible with the 4k formats (at least not yet...)!
Click to expand...

mmmm.... I run a Dell PERC 6/i. Uses same firmware as LSI 8888ELP. Any chance these cards will play nice with the EARS? How about just RAID 0 instead of RAID 5...?
 
I went up to BestBuy over lunch and bought a WD20EADS. Enabled TLER without any hassles at all. Its currently formatting (2tb recognized), so I'll supply model details later. It was assembled on Jan 14 2010. I have 2 more due to arrive tomorrow and will attempt to enable TLER on those as well. If those 2 also work, I'm going to declare this TLER not working rumor to be FUD and buy several more to complete my array upgrade.

It would be stupid for WD to make such a change. Having TLER available gives WD a huge advantage over the other consumer drive makers. People who need support and run mission critical apps are going to buy the RE series anyway. The rest of us don't want to or can't pay that much, so its not like they're losing money by having it on. Quite the opposite, as I was going to buy Hitachi if my experiment failed.
 
lizardking009 said:
I went up to BestBuy over lunch and bought a WD20EADS. Enabled TLER without any hassles at all. Its currently formatting (2tb recognized), so I'll supply model details later. It was assembled on Jan 14 2010. I have 2 more due to arrive tomorrow and will attempt to enable TLER on those as well. If those 2 also work, I'm going to declare this TLER not working rumor to be FUD and buy several more to complete my array upgrade.
Click to expand...

Stating the TLER thread as FUD because you ended up with drives that would TLER enable might be jumping to conclusions, since there are a LOT of people, myself included, that ended up with drives that wouldn't enable.

What you *are* doing is providing more clues (thus the point of this thread)- it could be that 6 months from now, we'll look back and be able to speculate that WD might have crippled TLER for a few months between late October/November and Decemeber/January *but* then reversed their decision. It could be it was only a certain factory pumping out the crippled firmware boards. It could also be that the whole TLER crippling thing wasn't even an intentional marketing/political move but due to some manufacturing anomaly. We'll probably never know since WD won't ever announce it publicly, so all we can do is share our findings and put the puzzle pieces together.
 
danman said:
Anyone have a version beside 1.00 or 1.03?
Click to expand...


1.03 worked for me on my WD20EADS. The tool seems very touchy - I have an Intel G45 chipset and the tool actually crashed, right after updating my drive. It also bitched and failed when I left my normal Seagate drives attached. I have to wonder if some of the failures were due to issues like these.
 
When you ran the TLER utility, did you have the SATA mode set to AHCI (or ICH RAID) or to an IDE compatibility mode?
 
Fuck. I just ordered 4X WD15EARS 1.5 TB drives last week to replace my 6x WD6400AAKS drives. Hopefully LSI can pull through with some firmware or somthing so I can run these puppies in RAID 5. I will try TLER ...

lizardking009 said:
I went up to BestBuy over lunch and bought a WD20EADS. Enabled TLER without any hassles at all. Its currently formatting (2tb recognized), so I'll supply model details later. It was assembled on Jan 14 2010. I have 2 more due to arrive tomorrow and will attempt to enable TLER on those as well. If those 2 also work, I'm going to declare this TLER not working rumor to be FUD and buy several more to complete my array upgrade.

It would be stupid for WD to make such a change. Having TLER available gives WD a huge advantage over the other consumer drive makers. People who need support and run mission critical apps are going to buy the RE series anyway. The rest of us don't want to or can't pay that much, so its not like they're losing money by having it on. Quite the opposite, as I was going to buy Hitachi if my experiment failed.
Click to expand...
 
I have enabled TLER on 3 WD20EADS drives.

1x 00S2B0: Jan 21 2010 (my previous post was wrong on the date by a week)
2x 00R6B0: Jan 16 2010

The R6B0 drives were enabled on an Intel P35 w/AHCI and native mode disabled. Unlike the G45 chipset, the utility ran on the P35 with no weird error at the end.
 
95prelude said:
Ok guys, got another couple of new batches to try today. WD1001FALS-00U9B0

DATE: Dec16
DCM: HBNNHT2CB
and
DATE: DEC09
DCM: HBNNHV2CB

They both came with tler disabled. Turn tler on without problems. I suggest people buy these drives locally and with an exchange policy.

Hope this help.
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Hi, where can I buy these WD1001FALS drives that support TLER? These are 2x500GB platters correct?
 
Just enabled TLER and backed off the head parking to 2mins on 10 WD20EADs. All were December 2009 build with 01.00A01 firmware.

Anyone know how to make delayed spinup or "Power Up In Standby" work with these drives? Neither my onboard SATA or Adaptec 52445 can power them up, HDAT2 can but that doesnt really help me.
 
I don't think the WD20EADS has a jumper related to any power modes or staggered spin-up.

The WD20EADS firmware 01.00A01 version does not support APM (Advanced Power Management) mode/features.

Firmware version 04.05.G04 and later do include APM support.
 
treadstone said:
I don't think the WD20EADS has a jumper related to any power modes or staggered spin-up.

The WD20EADS firmware 01.00A01 version does not support APM (Advanced Power Management) mode/features.

Firmware version 04.05.G04 and later do include APM support.
Click to expand...

Hi Treadstone,

Interesting..... Its odd that running HDAT2 /W can wake up my 01.00A01 drives. (My drives have "Power Up In Standby" stamped on the label, enabled by jumpering pins 3 & 4)

Edit: I think I'm right in saying that PUIS (Part of the ATA-6 spec) is different to APM wake up. Looks like most raidcard makers use APM, the exception being Highpoint.
 
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hellosky, what error are you receiving with the WD20EARS? Are you running the utility with AHCI off and enhanced/native/RAID disabled? Have you tried an older machine, like one with an ICH5/6/7?
 
I don't remember off the top of my head, but one of them say TLER support ont found (I got 4 error messages). I did this with AHCI turned off. I don't have older machines to try it on.
 
That's disappointing to hear. What version of WDTLER are you using? Did you have any other drives attached at the time?

My copy of WDTLER said TLER not supported when I ran it with my Seagate drive still attached. I removed the Seagate and then my WD20EADS enabled TLER just fine.

I hope that others who buy WD20EARS drives will try and let us know.
 
It was the only drive installed, so I'm pretty sure TLER is not present on EARS series.

For RAID people shouldn't be using EARS anyways. I hear 512b sector emulation mode is still relatively slow.

Does anyone know if WD1001FALS-00E3A0 supports TLER?
 
lizardking009 said:
I went up to BestBuy over lunch and bought a WD20EADS. Enabled TLER without any hassles at all. Its currently formatting (2tb recognized), so I'll supply model details later. It was assembled on Jan 14 2010. I have 2 more due to arrive tomorrow and will attempt to enable TLER on those as well. If those 2 also work, I'm going to declare this TLER not working rumor to be FUD and buy several more to complete my array upgrade.

It would be stupid for WD to make such a change. Having TLER available gives WD a huge advantage over the other consumer drive makers. People who need support and run mission critical apps are going to buy the RE series anyway. The rest of us don't want to or can't pay that much, so its not like they're losing money by having it on. Quite the opposite, as I was going to buy Hitachi if my experiment failed.
Click to expand...


2 out of 3 drives on mine would not enable the tool.
WD1001FALS 1TB

I am not sure which version of the tool I used
 
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