Need to Save Data to an External Harddrive

[delluser]

I have a Dell 1525 Inspiron Laptop and  one morning it just wouldn't start up to Windows at all.  The tech couldn't do it no matter what, no restore, nothing so he said he'd have to wipe everything clean.  But, I can't lose some important text files.   I bought an external harddrive but since I can't get  into Windows I can't load the installation CD or really do anything. 
How can I get my laptop info into an external harddrive without getting into windows?  Is there any other way to reload without losing files?
Thanks

[Geek-9pm]

Yes. And the Tech should have told you. The method is to gently remove the HDD from the sick computer and place it into a good computer, as an extra drive. You save the relevant data into a folder on the main drive of the host computer. Later you can move that data back once the sick computer is well again. Programs have to be installed again. The data only needs to be copied.

Hard Drive Recovery Tutorial - How To Slave Laptop Disk
The link above shows doing it with an eternal USB device, so you would not even have to get inside the Desktop Chassis.