does removing the hard drive break the warranty seal?

Removing the hard drive is very simple, just look on the side and look for the slide release for the cover, then pull out the hard drive. This will not break the warranty seal in any way. I wouldn't try to vaccum out anything with a household vac, what they are talking about is removing the case and getting rid of dust inside the unit, might be causing over heating. Removing the case will break the seal and void the warranty, but if you 5hink you might have excess dust inside then and you've had it more than a year you would have a warranty anymore anyway, but use compressed air, like the kind used for keyboards, to blow away the dust.