I am stuck with an USB external hard drive (Maxtor 1 Touch) 750GB that crashed. I have photos and home movies (my son's birth, first birthday etc) that are very important to me.

I am given to understand that Spinrite is a very good tool to use, but It does not come "with out of the box" capabilities to access USB drives. If I open the case to get the HDD out from my External HDD, I would compromise the warrenty and I would not be able to exchange the Drive.

I have done a bit of research and have the drivers that could help. But the bit I am missing is, How to put it all together.

I would really appreciate it if some one can give me step by step instruction where I can create a dos boot cd that can load the drivers and assign a drive letter to it so that I can make Dos "See" the external hard drive.

I have a Toshiba satellite laptop that runs Windows XP (Home). It does not have a floppy drive.

I will be greatful to your help in the regard.