Snow Leopard will not boot after TM Restore

I had an email issue (lost 5 accounts) that has turned into a nightmare. Apple Support told me to restore my entire hard drive from my Time Machine. I booted to the DVD and selected a restore point and 12 hours later I get the Apple with the spinning wheel. I have tried two restore points - same result. It will not boot in safe mode either. I ran the Verify Drive utility and the drive checks out.
The drive is about 75% full after this TM restore operation so it appears it is pulling all of my data into the machine.
I have a number of backups of my system including a full one on ARQ plus all the TM backups. I am just not versed in the Apple OS enough to know how to recover from this point.
Q's:
1. Is it possible that the data and the Apps have been restored but the OS is simply corrupt on the TM?
2. Is there a Repair feature on the SnoL DVD or am I faced with a fresh install?
3. If I do a fresh install, can I simply copy the Apps folder back in the machine and my apps work correctly? (I realize a few may not that have to have components in browsers or whatever).
Suggestions on recovery approach...
Thanks, Uursa

uursamajor1 wrote:
1. Is it possible that the data and the Apps have been restored but the OS is simply corrupt on the TM?
Welcome to Apple's discussion groups.
That's possible. Once you can get it to boot you can explore that.
2. Is there a Repair feature on the SnoL DVD or am I faced with a fresh install?
Soon after booting from that DVD you should see a Utilities menu with Disk Utility under it. With Disk Utility you can perform a "Repair Disk" operation.
3. If I do a fresh install, can I simply copy the Apps folder back in the machine and my apps work correctly?
You could first try installing OS X 10.6 over what's already there. You might also learn more about what's wrong by doing a "verbose boot':
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1492

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