how to remove driveaxle off of 97 corolla

I need to replace my driveaxle off of my corolla cause its bent and can't get the inner part off thats attached to the gearbox. I have the haynes manual but doesn't give much instruction on how to remove it but prying it with a bar. I have tried everything and it does not want to come out. I've hammered the hell out of the thing with screwdrivers, prying bars and crap but I don't understand why it does not want to come out. Also I am worried that I may break something in the gearbox if I try to hard. Its attached by a little snap on ring inside and this might be my problem. Has anybody replaced one successfully. I do not want to take it to a mechanic just to get this off because that means I will not have to put everything back together just to drive it to a mechanic, and not to mention the price they will charage. Is there a tool of some sort that would help me get this off.

I had trouble with this myself--I replaced both sides. On one side, I got a three-jaw puller (loaner tool from Autozone) and secured it to the inner CV joint housing. Then I put a chain though the puller, and secured the chain to a bumper jack that I held up sideways against the transaxle. A couple of notches on the bumper jack and it pulled right out. On the other side, I did not have those tools, so I wrapped a strap (one of those tie-down ratcheting types) around the inner CV joint housing and hooked both ends to a come-along attached to a sturdy structure ( a truck's bumper in my case). I ratcheted the come-along and the car slid on the garage floor on jack stands instead of pulling out the axle--very dangerous. A friend figured that the ring holding the axle in needed a little jarring to let go, so he took an air chisel to the CV housing and it did the trick.
Good luck and don't hurt yourself!

Thanks I will give it another shot. Yeah the way I have it setup is a little dangerous with a jackstand on top of a half foot metal surface and bricks holding up the frame for support, lol. The thing that sucks the most about this job is reaching underneath because of the little amount of room.