SQL services wont start due to incorrect drive letter after windows restore SQL services wont start due to incorrect drive letter after windows restore

Had a server crash, was successfully able to reinstall windows and restore the server SQL and all the necessary services were already installed.

Only problem the windows drives letters are wrong. So the services are pointed to the incorrect drive letter. I cant change the services in reedit or change the drive letter in disk management. Is there a way to do a repair in SQL add remove programs to associate's the necessary services with the correct drive letter?

Here's a example of the services
Path to executable
I:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\

only problem the actual drive letter is E:

Services that wont start
SQL SERVER
SQL SERVER AGENT
SQL Server Analysis
SQL Server Analysis Services
SQL Server Integration Services
SQL Server Reporting Services
I assume you've restored entire partitions, but the partition drive letters are now wrong.

If SQL is looking for I: then you have three choices

a) Fix the drive letter of the partition that's now got the data.  You said this is not an option.  Is that because I: is already taken, or because something else is now looking for this data based on its new drive letter (E:)

b) Add an additional drive letter for the partition - nothing stops you referring to the same partition by more than one drive letter.  This isn't an option if I: is already taken and you can't move that data from I:

c) Create a symbolic link on your new I: drive to point things back to what's now on E:.  Start an elevated command prompt.  Then type

I:
cd "\Program Files\"
mklink /d "Microsoft SQL Server" "E:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server"


If you already have a Microsoft SQL Server folder on your new I: then change the mklink command to make the MSSQL.1 folder as the symlink rather than the Microsoft SQL Server folder.