Library on External Hard Drive

I have been using itunes on a laptop with the library stored on an external hard drive. I have now purchased a new i-mac and have connected the external hard drive to the new computer. But I am having difficulty transferring my library with playlists etc to itunes on new computer.
Have tried importing the xml file, but will import 355 of the 4200 songs then states the rest cannot be found. The files are all present as I can still access them by itunes on the laptop. I can import them all, but lose playlists and ratings etc. Have also tried just changing the library location in preferences to point at the external hard drive location, but no luck.
I would like to keep them where they are and just have the new computer access them.
Any suggestions??
  Mac OS X (10.4.8)  

I have been trying something new with my iTunes Library. I've made a sparse disk image with Disks Utiliity named "iTunes Music". This is the same name as the default name iTunes uses. I dragged the image into the start-up items in "System Preferances --> Acccounts" so it mounts at login. Then in iTunes Preferences --> Advanced tab at the top "iTunes Music Folder location" I changed the location to the mounted disk image.
Now each time I log in, the image is mounted and when i start iTunes that is where it plays my files from. The iTunes Folder is where it is ordinarily in my Music folder and the same for the Database. But now if I move the image or if I make a new one (larger) and keep the same name, all the information iTunes has in its databse will be accurate.
There is another trick you can use if you are on a network. Created an auto mount share in Netinfo the other computer. This will be mounted when you start your computer. Place your sparse image on the network drive and drag it into the startup items in user accounts. The image will be mounted when iTunes is launched. This is described in detail at: <http://www.bombich.com/mactips/automount.html>.
The main thing is to keep things like Folder names consistent so iTunes doesn't get confused.
I hope this gives you some ideas.
Cheers,
Katatak
1Ghz G4 iBook    

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