Hard drive won't boot into OS but all files are intact

Hi,
I recently installed Lion and when I did so I backed up my OS drive to two internal drives both of which were partioned--each back up drive has 2 partitions (one of each was for my back up OS).
Yesterday I wanted to restore my original OS drive to it's orignal state and did a restore from one of the back ups. I have done this several times with no problem. Yesterday, however, something went wrong and I cannot boot into either of my backups--I tried restoring to my original OS drive and I can't boot to it either. I know that all the files are still there because upon boot up if I use the option-command-shift-delete to get alternate boot device i can choose my back up and/or my main boot up drive to boot up. This is, however, the only way I can boot up. I fear that I corrupted some kind of boot file while creating the back ups when copying.
I erased my main OS drive and reinstalled Lion to it and it boots up--however, I have none of my files.
Ideally I would like to copy everything over from my backup drive to my new OS without the corrupted boot problem coming along with the files.
Is there a straightforward way to do this?

Disk Utility : Restore - look in Help, there really are good tips and How to tips and steps
Sometimes DU Restore has been a problem where SuperDuper would work.
Have more than one backup set and type.
Clones are bootable, and first thing to do after making one (and repair permissions and the drive even) is test and insure it is bootable. GUID partition table for one thing.
MA should work if it sees the volume as a system.
TriBackup is great for synching folders and files, even a system.
Maybe the change to Lion is why this time failed. You did try the Lion Recovery Mode (command-r) and read up Apple Support Lion.

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Message was edited by: windylove

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****Click the White thumb to say thanks****
****Please mark Accept As Solution if it solves your problem****
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