Windows 7: How to use WDTLER and if I really have to?

So I have a Windows 7 Pro machine, 64-bit. I have in my possession 4 x 500GB western digital black drives that I want to use in RAID5. But I have been reading about the possible error that can occur and that using WDTLER will solve that. So I am not sure if I need to do this or if I should just install and move on.

The drives are all wd5001aals with firmware 05.01D05 on all of them

I guess the first step is, do I need to check if TLER is enabled or not on these drives? How do I do this?

This article from Wikipedia seems to indicate that it should be used in a raid environment depending on the raid controller. Read it and see which portion applies to your situation. Hope this helps.

Okay, I fall in to the RAID5 category. Mobo is Asus P7P55D Deluxe, up to date with BIOS and drivers. I will be installing the Intel Rapid Storage 10.0.6.1002 once the drives are hooked up and then creating all 4 drives in to a RAID5.

The link states that this is for the SE, SE16 and GP models for desktops. I just checked the label on all 4 hard drives and they do not mention anywhere that they are WD Black SE variants or GP. It just says WD Black so I guess I am in the clear with these 4 drives.

Once I get these in RAID5, should I still check to verify if TLER is off on these 4 drives?

Hopefully, someone with more experience with raid and WD drives can help. From what I am able to read by doing a search, only Enterprise (RE) drives from WD are suitable for raid, Although some have done it with retail versions. WD supposedly does not offer the TLER fix any longer and supposedly fixed the retail drives to not accept it. But, strangely enough, some of their own external hard drives are WD green drives in a raid array. You may draw you own conclusions from that. Sorry I can't be more help more.

Thanks a lot E, you pointed me to research and learn more and that's great for starters. Also, by sharing this information just makes this forum better than others, at least IMO. That's why I come here when I have questions or issues and if I can lend a hand.

I got the drives set up in RAID5, I lost 500GB+, but I expected that based on a website calculations on what I should get.

I agree with you, they may have fixed the issue, but you still have to be able to confirm.

Thanks for your help E and I await for the pros to get me to the next step, how do I now confirm that TLER is on or off in my set up?

Perhaps I didn't explain it correctly. What I meant to say was that WD fixed the newer retail versions so that you cannot enable TLER on them. The only way I am aware of checking is the WDTLER.zip file itself.

I have asked one of our resident experts to see if they can help. It may be later this evening before he gets online. Best of luck.

Okay, thanks again

According to thisWestern Digital Time-Limited Error Recovery (TLER) with RAID and SE, SE16, GP Models - Page 6 - [H]ard|Forum Post 102 tler works on the drives....

Now wdtler is a DOS program, and DOS has problems using modern optical drives, might have to break out the old floppy drive for this or possibly use a extra hard drive to run the program....after it's set the firmware you can activate or disable with a 7 second delay or set the desired delay your selfRAID gets Revisited (TLER and the WDTLER utility) « Init The mirror seems to be working...(Init blog) at bottom

TLER is off by default on consumer drives....And TLER is transparent to the OS....Windows can not access the Hard Drives firmware

A bit more information http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=226794&mpage=1

Awesome information. So since this is "Greek" to me how to do DOS, step by step for me is a must. I guess another question is should I check if TLER is enabled while I have my 4 drives running in RAID5 or do I have to check for this per drive, just using the drives as just a single individual drive in a non RAID environment?

First, are these the steps I must take to check then?

* Find an old machine, my P6T Deluxe v2 has no floppy connector to use a floppy
* Using the floppy, make a boot disc. Then unzip the files to the same floppy
* Disconnect my RAID5 I did yesterday, take one drive and connect it to the old machine
Reboot and boot from the floppy

Is that pretty much it in broad strokes?

And I just want to say thank you to everyone up to this point. Thank you for your information and help.