obtaining a DirectX9 surface to render

Hi all, Can anyone share a code snippet/pseudo code on how to get a surface to render to using DirectGraphics (Dx9?) inside a gauge? I'm exploring ways to use DirectX instead of GDI+ for custom draw gauges (mostly for speed). While GDI+ uses a device context from the gauge callback, knowing the HDC is not very useful with Dx9 (as it was with Dx7). There seems to be all kinds of ways to create device contexts from the main HWND, but not to map a surface to an existing HDC. Given that FS9 already uses a Dx context, I don't want create another context that may conflict with the main rendering engine.As usual, information on this is ellusive. Any help is appreciated!Please contact me via e-mail martiner(@)rrcol.com (remove paren) if you prefer.Thanks much!