Need help restoring a new HD from an old back-up

My hard drive failed. I've had a new one installed professionally. I was told that I shouldn't restore the new computer/drive from my time machine back up because it might be corrupted and can copy over the corruption.

Fair enough. But is there anything I can do to make the transfer of info easier? Upon star-up of the new drive/system, I'm on the "Do you own a mac?" screen. Is there any way to transfer anything via this process? Or should I just start new and begin the manual copy/transfer process? And if I need to do things manually, is there a link with onfo on making that process easier?

Thanks for any help you can give.

Will help if you provide computer details and operating system. Should you be using Snow Leopard OS X.6 or earlier, pop in the system disk and format the drive Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and go into Partition and ensure GUID is selected under Options. The pop the old drive into an external case and use Migration Assistant in Utilities to bring things across.

If the computer came with Lion or Mountain Lion and you did not make a USB thumb drive prior to installing, you will have to access the 'net and hit Command - R to download from the App Store.

It is snow leopard. the drive is already formatted. Like I said, it's at the "do you own a mac" screen. at this point, can some info be copied over without copying corrupted files? what are the options?

Boot from the SL disc and install the Operating System and then connect TM and run from there.