Help wanted with Time Machine backup

Hi-
My computer got corrupted (I think...things are beach balling).

I want to restore everything using Time Machine to a date before the beach balling took place. How exactly would I be doing this (I've read the previous threads regarding time machine and am still a bit confused and very nervous about my data...the corruption deleted some of my files).

Can I just simply get on Time machine and pick the macintosh HD and click "restore" and be done.

or do I need to use my OSX CD and use the prompts that appear (I don't know how to do this).

Thank you.

Alex