Well, I'm in Med1 right now. There's really a few issues here. How obsessive are you abotu getting all the "study aides" which are really just test reviews, Power Point summarizations/alterations...which you really should be making yourself as your way of viewing and reviewing the material. Why use someone else's "study aids". If you have to do that, you're kinda sunk to begin with. That's just how I work. There are some Kaplan books, etc. floating around which are helpful.

On my pc, I have abotu 1.8 gig in which includes the whole Med 1 Anatomy and about 1/2 of each of Embryo, Histo, and all of EBM. Go figure. This also includes files and summaries I've made, a few kaplan books, notes, etc

The external HD is for backups, in case your own computer's drive goes down. Then, at very worst scenario, you can take yoru hd to the library or a friends computer and access yoru stuff, or study, until your's is fixed.

Each block (3 weeks) or each week, the teacher puts their Power Point lectures on for that week...or block, respectively. They do it differently at different times. So, you don't really even need a backup HD for that, or anything else.

Hope that helps. It's really a personality issue. Those who spend all day going around finding teh hottest new notes and "aides", may be better spending their time creating their own, or ID'ing structures in the anatomy lab.

PS. I'd get a "portable" drive, one that powers from teh computer. It seems a lot more convenient that how I have it, which is not that way...i have to create a desk space for it so I remember to backup regularly. Then again, it's not in my brief case or backpack getting banged around??

PPS Someone already poured a cup of coffee in their laptop. Amazing thing, it didn't fry.

PPS Dr. D loves to take role after the midway break. He's smart and funny. He's serious about role.

Blessings