Hard disk forces BIOS upgrade - but can I use it safely before upgrading ?

["Paul J. Keenan" <paul@funkiest.demon.co.uk>]

Hi,

I've made do with a 1.2Gb HD, housing 500Mb of Win95 (boo, hiss!) and
700Mb of debian + swap for a few years now, and recently it's been a
whole load of no fun juggling everything.

So I've bought a new hard disk (Maxtor DiamondMax VL20 10.2Gb UDMA66),
but have discovered that my Award BIOS will only address a maximum of
8.4Mb.

I'm looking for a replacement BIOS and will buy & fit it ASAP.  But I 
am worried that if I divide up & start using the hard disk now that I 
may not be able to address the whole drive without reformatting it when 
I get the BIOS upgrade.

This (possibly irrational) fear stems from a lack of knowledge of disk
/ BIOS interaction and an acquaintenceship with Sod's Law.

Can someone tell if it's safe to dive in right now and I can get the
extra 1.8Gb at a later date when the new BIOS arrives without losing
my data ?

-- 
Regards,
Paul