Files Appear Locked - Havent Changed Permissions

Can you post a pic of the folder with padlock and give us your external HDD model?
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If the folder lock first appeared after connecting to the laptop that is OK, the icon actually shows that there are users that do not have the full access to the files- normally where you actually opened the folders when on the laptop thus giving the laptop user an entry in the NTFS security tables - The user on the PC and Laptop may look identical to us (EG both called FRED), but to the computers they are completely different entities known by their SID, this is a long unique reference number assigned by the system.

In order to remove the icons, on both the laptop and the PC you need to open the root folder of the drive, open properties, then security and add your specific user name to have full control, and tick the option to cascade the rights to all folders below the current.

When you complete this on both systems when you check the security on the drive from any system you will see a user marked as Unknown and showing a SID .... number, this is the user on the other system.

Accessing a shared drive from two systems will always act in this way so it's nothing to be worried about - if you do not perform the actions above you may find you are asked for credentials as you move through the folder structure the above actions do this in one go

Barman58 said:

If the folder lock first appeared after connecting to the laptop that is OK, the icon actually shows that there are users that do not have the full access to the files- normally where you actually opened the folders when on the laptop thus giving the laptop user an entry in the NTFS security tables - The user on the PC and Laptop may look identical to us (EG both called FRED), but to the computers they are completely different entities known by their SID, this is a long unique reference number assigned by the system.

In order to remove the icons, on both the laptop and the PC you need to open the root folder of the drive, open properties, then security and add your specific user name to have full control, and tick the option to cascade the rights to all folders below the current.

When you complete this on both systems when you check the security on the drive from any system you will see a user marked as Unknown and showing a SID .... number, this is the user on the other system.

Accessing a shared drive from two systems will always act in this way so it's nothing to be worried about - if you do not perform the actions above you may find you are asked for credentials as you move through the folder structure the above actions do this in one go

Thought it might be this and why I wanted a pic to make sure, thought another app could have been installed thanks for the great info.

I've been dealing with this type of thing since Windows NT days - normally when a client has an issue with a PC and swaps out a data drive into a new system - although the user names are the same the drive may not even show up beyond the root drive due to the permissions, Another regular cause has been multi-boot systems where two or more Operating Systems are trying to access a data drive - in the early Pre-Beta days of Windows 7 I actually managed to get up to Five different OS's sharing a Single data drive - that was fun