pg_dump DATABASE > database.dump -> psql

Hi! I just suffered a hard drive failure and restored a database that had been
saved via pg_dump  DATABASE >DATABASE.dump. However, instead of doing
pg_restore (which I completely forgot about :( ) ,

I did:

createdb DATABASE      then I did
psql DATABASE <DATABASE.dump.

Now I can access my data from the database, but the response is very slow, it
seems as if it is not using all the index's that existed. even if I vacuum
--analyze very vigorously.

I am a bit of a newbie. I am also switching from postgresql-7.2.4 running on
redhat-7.3 to postgreql 7.4.5 running on the latest debian-testing
distribution (sarge).  I used all the same enhancements for speeding up
postgresql on my system:

kernel.shmmax = 425000000
in the proper place in /etc/sysctl.conf
and
in the postgresql.conf file
 shared_buffers = 48000
  max_connections = 512
  sort_mem = 4096
  effective_cache_size = 4000
  wal_buffers = 8

What should I do to fix the situation?
Thanks
Mitchell