macOS can't repair the disk => Okay to reformat HHD with Home Folder on it?

[toothpix]

I have a 120 GB SSD with OS 10.14 and all my applications on it, and then a 1TB HDD for all my data. I recently got the following scary message:

Tried to repair drive in Disk Utility - didn't work.

I have a Time Machine backup of my 1TB HDD data drive and I want to reformat my 1TB HDD per the instructions in the above error message and restore from the Time Machine backup, but I've never restored from a Time Machine backup on my Hackintosh or used Migration Assistant before and have the following questions:

1. Can I reformat the hard drive with my home folder on it without causing MacOS to freak out? Or should first I assign a new home folder on my 120 GB SSD (and then reformat, restore from backup, and then change my home folder back to my 1TB HDD)?
2. If yes, how should I reformat the 1TB HDD (MacOS Extended Journaled)?
3. To make sure Time Machine restores my backup to my 1TB HDD, can I just use Migration Assistant, or do I need to boot into macOS Recovery to be able to select the correct destination drive to restore my TimeMachine backup to?

Thanks for the help!

 

[toothpix]

bump!