The BIOS doesn't show my NANO as a boot option

You’ve installed the NANO, restarted, entered the BIOS, and the boot order menu doesn’t list it. Frustrating, but almost always fixable. Six causes account for nearly every report we see.

Work through them in order. After each change, save BIOS settings and reboot to check whether the NANO appears.

1. it’s plugged in but not seated firmly

Power down completely. Unplug the NANO and reseat it firmly in a USB 3.0 port on the back of your PC (back-panel ports are more reliable than front-panel ones). Power back on.

The NANO appears in the boot list as YOM or as the drive model, usually Exascend.

For USB NANOs: try a different USB 3.0 port. Front-panel ports can be wired through unreliable internal cables on some cases. The blue USB 3.0 ports on the back of your motherboard are the most reliable.

2. USB boot is disabled in the BIOS

For USB NANOs only. Some BIOS configurations disable boot from USB by default. Find the Boot or Boot Options section and look for an entry like “USB Boot Support” or “Boot from USB Devices”. Set it to Enabled.

The exact location and name vary by motherboard manufacturer.

3. the BIOS is in legacy / CSM mode

The NANO boots UEFI only. If your boot order shows just “Legacy: XYZ” entries and no NANO, your board is in legacy mode and won’t enumerate it.

Find CSM (Compatibility Support Module) or Legacy Boot and set it to Disabled. Some BIOSes instead expose a Boot Mode setting with options like “UEFI”, “Legacy”, or “UEFI + Legacy” — set it to UEFI.

This also matters for the next step: CSM conflicts with Secure Boot, and the NANO needs Secure Boot on.

4. Secure Boot is switched off

Counterintuitive, but: the NANO requires Secure Boot to be enabled. It’s a signed secure-boot drive, and turning Secure Boot off does not make it easier to boot — it stops the NANO working.

Go to the Security or Boot section and set Secure Boot to Enabled, then leave it on permanently.

You do not need to preload a YOM signing key by hand. On the first boot the NANO walks you through enrolling its key itself, on a blue MOK screen where you confirm with your activation code. That’s covered in step 4 of Setting up your NANO.

If you previously chose Reset MOK or Delete MOK on that blue screen, the enrolled key is gone and the NANO may stop booting. Contact the team — don’t keep retrying.

5. you have multiple drives and the BIOS only lists “Boot Drive” generically

Many BIOSes group SSDs under a single “Boot Drive Order” with vague labels like “P0 SATA SSD” or “M.2_1 SSD”. Step into the submenu and you’ll usually see the actual drive names there. The NANO shows up as something like “YOM” or the underlying SSD model number.

If that submenu doesn’t list the NANO at all, the BIOS isn’t detecting the hardware. Go back to step 1.

6. an outdated BIOS doesn’t detect the drive

Rare, but possible on older boards: a dated BIOS can fail to enumerate USB boot devices correctly. Check your motherboard manufacturer’s site for a BIOS update. Updating BIOS firmware is a careful operation, follow the manufacturer’s instructions exactly.

still not showing up

If you’ve worked through all six and the NANO still doesn’t appear, contact us with:

• The exact motherboard make and model
• Your current BIOS version (shown on the BIOS main screen)
• A photo of your BIOS boot order screen

We have hardware compatibility data and can usually identify what’s specific to your board.

Contact the team →