is it possible to set whdload so that it spins down automatically hdd motor after 'preloading' the game?
I think that has more to do with the kind of HDD you have, many of which (I think the S.M.A.R.T. IDE ones) can be set to spin-down after a certain time-frame. I believe idefix97 has prefs to set this. (on the netbook now, can't check.. Such things aren't too useful for UAE) There might be something on Aminet that can force the HDD to do so, in which case sticking it in the .whdload_prefs (or whatever the file in s: is called) might work. Of course, you'll probably want to run a script with a "wait 5" or something before the spin down.