Amen brother! These are great guides, but could be improved with tips to simplify some processes. I just did the same as you, and it was quick and easy, with less chance to damage cable connections.

But heated air rises...

So on earth—unless you are in a vacuum—heat rises.

I see that for all the guides for all the MBP models with solid state storage, the battery is disconnected before the solid state storage is removed. Why?

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Traditional hard drives and SSDs don't have to have their batteries disconnected before removing...do they?