Boot from folder?

I just got my Macbook Pro back from the Apple Genius bar...first thing they did to repair my machine was reinstall OSX 10.6.8 (that turned out not to be the problem - it was a hardware issue.) At first I thought they deleted or overwrote my entire old boot volume, but then I found they moved it to a folder within the hidden Volumes folder (/Volumes/Macintosh HD)...how can I boot from this folder and ideally restore it as my default boot volume? I'd like to have all my apps and stuff back.

Thanks.

/Volumes/ is not a folder, its the UNIX file hierarchy at the root level of devices, so /Volumes/Macintosh HD would be a hard disk or Partition called Macintosh HD, not a folder called Macintosh HD inside a folder called Volumes

That's funny, because when I check out the hard drive with Disk Utility, it shows only one partition.

Here's a pic of where I see my old boot volume if that helps any...

http://www.imagebam.com/image/e05f56166156051

I was wrong then, in your case there is a backup ,of your old system in a folder.

You might be able to get your old account back using migration assistant, but you might be better off making a disk image from the folder /Volumes/Macintosh HD - you can use disk utility to do this but may need an external disk if you don't have the spare space.

You can then mount the disk image and use Migration assistant to bring back your old user account and apps