Itunes 6.0.4 can't find 80% of my songs even though they're still there

i'm having the following problem, since upgrading to 6.0.4 on my Windows XP machine:
net: ~20% of my song files will play as normal, ~80% of the songs in itunes say they can't find original file and i have to manually locate to find, they're all still there in their original location
did some troubleshooting and manual analysis of the itunes library .xml file and discovered that the difference is that some of my songs were ripped "with track number prefix" and some without. this appears to be the discrepancy
e.g. the itunes music library .xml file is pointing to:
C:\...\itunes\itunes music\...\03 Songname.mp4
when the actual file is at
C:\...\itunes\itunes music\...\Songname.mp4
or vice versa.
Does anyone have suggestions on how to correct? i'm open to all suggestions including e.g. suggestions for how to either update the .xml file or rename the affected files?
note: re-adding folder to library is not a valid solution for me as it would require deleting the "missing" songs as duplicates and net will delete all my ratings, genre, etc. for the "missing" songs.
thanks for any suggestions, much appreciated.

Are these "thousands of files" in an iTunes library that simply cannot be found?
If so, assuming you know exactly where they are, hold the "Option" key while opening iTunes from your dock. You will then be given a "Choose Library" option. Choose it and point to your library.

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