We have all had hard drives go down for us in the past and I am looking at a couple right now. The biggest problem is the time it takes to replace your lost data and of course the cost for replacing the drive in the first place.
I have heard of stories regarding the art of freezing your hard drive to recover but have never seen any proof of this working. Which is why I was amazed and pleased to read this article where the author has tested this theory and has proof that it actually works to certain extent - Gona stick my defective hard drives in the Freezer after writing this.
He only got the drive working for two mins but this could be enough time for your to grab that important file and for the sake of removing a packet of frozen fish fingers to make way for your hard drive I think it is worth attempting.