Upgrading to Mavericks wrecked my MacBook Pro & now it only works when external hard drive is plugged in

So I tried to upgrade to Mavericks today and it failed (same error as in this post which seemed to be a common problem). It wouldn't let me repair the disk, and after trying all sorts I rebooted my computer in recovery mode - it wouldn't let me reinstall Lion because the hard drive was apparently locked and I could see no way around this. So I decided to restore from a Time Machine backup on an external hard drive and that worked okay, except my MacBook now only works when the external hard drive is connected. If I remove the external hard drive, I'm back to square one as it still won't let me reinstall Lion as the HD is locked!
I have no idea what's going on. HELP!

The startup drive is failing, or there is some other internal hardware fault.
Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service provider.
If privacy is a concern, erase the data partition(s) with the option to write zeros* (do this only if you have at least two complete, independent backups, and you know how to restore to an empty drive from any of them.) Don’t erase the recovery partition, if present.
Keeping your confidential data secure during hardware repair
Apple also recommends that you deauthorize a device in the iTunes Store before having it serviced.
*An SSD doesn't need to be zeroed.

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