Can't install Mavericks to my hard drive: what should I do?

I am using a mid-2010 Macbook with Snow Leopard. I have been trying to install OS X Mavericks, with no real success. When I downloaded and ran the installer, it would not let me select my internal hard drive as start-up disk. I used a flash drive, assuming that, for whatever reason, I would be expected to install in onto my hard drive from the stick; what actually happened (sensibly enough, I suppose) was that, if I left the stick in the USB port when I started up the laptop, I got Mavericks running rather slowly; whereas if I started up without the stick, I got Snow Leopard running normally - and in no instance did I see a way to get Mavericks from the stick to the hard drive. I have found no mention anywhere else of those who install Mavericks having to run it from an external hard drive. What is going on? How do I get Mavericks on my computer? Do I really need, or even want, to?

Hello 123catsank,
It sounds like you are unable to install Mavericks due to this error message that you cannot use the disk to start the computer but it is the only partition you have on the hard drive. I recommend the troubleshooting from the following article. While the title of it mentions Mac OS X Lion, the steps are relevant for Mac OS X Mavericks as well:
OS X Lion: Installer reports "This disk cannot be used to start up your computer"
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts3926
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Sterling

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