The restore will need to be perfomred as root

tar xvpzf filename.tgz -C /

the mkdir options are mandatory, and you will notice that they are the directories that are excluded from the backup. this is fine, but the folders do need to be replaced BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING AFTER THE RESTORE

mkdir proc
mkdir lost+found
mkdir mnt
mkdir sys
mkdir media
mkdir cdrom
mkdir home

now reboot

everything should now be cushdy