Itunes cannot locate files stored on external hard drive

Question

I use a maxtor external hard drive for my music storage(f:itunes) with 7000 songs on it. My Itunes library all of a sudden stopped locating the files. Through forum posts, I used advanced/change file location to f:itunes, and the only way I could hear the songs was to open the f drive and individually click on each file.
I thought using library/consolidate library would solve this problem, now I have 2 or 3 copies of each song. Some of them play (with Fdrive connected) while others still show the cannot locate source message. When I tried a few songs I deleted the ones that would not play when clicked on, while keeping the ones that did. After deleting, the original ones now won't play.
How do I get my original set up to work, with Itunes library on my laptop to only display 1 track not 2 or 3, and play from the source files contained on my external HD? The other puzzling thing is when I connect my external drive, the prompt that asks what you want to do with the Maxtor displays a "F:\ access denied" message. Is this the main cause of my issues?

Answer 1

Well, before you wipe out your library and start all over, there is something to try.
You have to have the option set for itunes 'keep itunes folder organized' checked.
Change the location back to the default by pressing the reset folder location.
You will get a message asking if you want itunes to copy everything to match your settings. For god's sake, do NOT say yes or it will copy everything onto your C: drive.
Let it do its stuff. Then when it is finished, change the setting back to F:
+i-tunes music folder location to F:\mp3s+
Again, do NOT answer that question as yes.
Depending on how large your library is, this can take a while. My library has 27K tracks and it takes over a half hour. But you might get the links back. What this does is force itunes to look at all the paths.