Certified dead hdd: should i try the freezer trick?

my hdd died a couple days back and i sent it in to apple.
they certified that it's dead and it'll cost upwards of 1000 bucks to recover the data, which i'm not able to afford.
i've read about the freezer trick and am thinking of giving it a try.
but the thing is i am under applecare and apple is able to replace the hdd for free; but i'll be unable to get my old hdd back. (stupid policy) so if i get them to replace the hdd for me i lose any chance of recovering my data.
if i choose not to get a replacement hdd, i can try the freezer trick but i'll have to buy a new hdd on my own and do the replacement. and also voiding my applecare in the process.
what do you guys think? has the freezer trick ever worked for your macpro hdd? i've googled but haven't found much info pertaining specifically to mac hdds.

Either would be fine to use. FireWire (especially FireWire 800) is faster; USB is cheaper.
You can either buy a bare-drive adapter cable like this...
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/U2NV2SPATA/
...or an inexpensive drive enclosure like this:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/ES2.5BPU2S/
Or you can spend more and get a high-quality FireWire enclosure. I recently bought this one and am very pleased with it:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MSTG9438U2OB/
To my knowledge, there are no bare-drive cable adapters that connect to the computer via FireWire. I've never seen one offered, and I don't know why not.
An enclosure would be a considerably better choice if you intend, after trying to recover your files, to buy another bare hard drive on which to back up your new internal drive, after mounting it in the enclosure. Frankly, you're nuts if you don't intend to do this after your current tribulations.

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