Craig Ringer <craig(at)postnewspapers(dot)com(dot)au> writes:
> To be clearer: Do you mean that the folder you backed up is the folder
> with the file "PG_VERSION" in it, and all its contents?
Careful --- there are multiple PG_VERSION files scattered around in a
Postgres data directory tree. Your comment is correct with respect
to the topmost one, but I'm not certain it's a foolproof definition
of "the data directory".
regards, tom lane