Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
How to Boot from an NVMe SSD via PCIe Adapter on Older Motherboards
Older motherboards often lack native NVMe support in their legacy BIOS or early UEFI firmware. This prevents the system from recognizing an NVMe SSD installed via a PCIe adapter slot as a bootable drive.
Using Clover Bootloader bypasses this limitation. By loading Clover from a standard USB flash drive first, the system gains the necessary drivers to detect and boot your operating system directly from the NVMe SSD.
Step 1: Download Clover Bootloader
Navigate to the official repository: github.com/CloverHackyColor.
Locate and download the ISO package, typically named Clover-Sxxx-X64.iso.7z.
Extract the downloaded archive to access the raw .iso file.
Step 2: Prepare the Bootable USB Drive
Insert a USB flash drive (minimum capacity: 2GB) into your computer.
Open Rufus.
Select your flash drive, load the extracted Clover ISO file, and flash/burn the image to the drive.
Step 3: Inject the NVMe Driver
Because the ISO version of Clover is highly streamlined, you must manually enable the NVMe driver so Clover can see your PCIe SSD.
Open the flashed USB drive in File Explorer.
Navigate to the following directory:
\EFI\CLOVER\drivers\off
Locate the file named NvmExpressDxe.efi and copy it.
Paste this file into two separate target folders on the USB drive to ensure compatibility:
\EFI\CLOVER\drivers\BIOS
\EFI\CLOVER\drivers\UEFI
Step 4: Boot into the NVMe Drive
Keep the USB flash drive connected and restart your computer.
Enter your motherboard's boot menu (usually via F12, F11, or F8 during startup) and select the Clover USB Flash Drive.
Once the Clover Bootloader menu loads, it will automatically scan your hardware using the newly added driver.
Select your target NVMe PCIe drive from the graphical menu to boot into your operating system.
How to Boot from an NVMe SSD via PCIe Adapter on Older Motherboards
Older motherboards often lack native NVMe support in their legacy BIOS or early UEFI firmware. This prevents the system from recognizing an NVMe SSD installed via a PCIe adapter slot as a bootable drive.
Using Clover Bootloader bypasses this limitation. By loading Clover from a standard USB flash drive first, the system gains the necessary drivers to detect and boot your operating system directly from the NVMe SSD.
Step 1: Download Clover Bootloader
Navigate to the official repository: github.com/CloverHackyColor.
Locate and download the ISO package, typically named Clover-Sxxx-X64.iso.7z.
Extract the downloaded archive to access the raw .iso file.
Step 2: Prepare the Bootable USB Drive
Insert a USB flash drive (minimum capacity: 2GB) into your computer.
Open Rufus.
Select your flash drive, load the extracted Clover ISO file, and flash/burn the image to the drive.
Step 3: Inject the NVMe Driver
Because the ISO version of Clover is highly streamlined, you must manually enable the NVMe driver so Clover can see your PCIe SSD.
Open the flashed USB drive in File Explorer.
Navigate to the following directory:
\EFI\CLOVER\drivers\off
Locate the file named NvmExpressDxe.efi and copy it.
Paste this file into two separate target folders on the USB drive to ensure compatibility:
\EFI\CLOVER\drivers\BIOS
\EFI\CLOVER\drivers\UEFI
Step 4: Boot into the NVMe Drive
Keep the USB flash drive connected and restart your computer.
Enter your motherboard's boot menu (usually via F12, F11, or F8 during startup) and select the Clover USB Flash Drive.
Once the Clover Bootloader menu loads, it will automatically scan your hardware using the newly added driver.
Select your target NVMe PCIe drive from the graphical menu to boot into your operating system.
