My iTunes Library/Playlist Just Disappeared

Hello, I hope you are well.
I have been using iTunes for years without any major problems. Today, it was fine during the afternoon, but after I shut it down and turned it back on, iTunes greeted me with the screen telling me to add songs to my Library.
The Library that I have been using for years just disappeared, and there are no playlists at all. I checked for the music files on my computer, and they are all there - both the hundreds I've purchased directly from the iTunes Store, as well as the hundreds more that I've purchased or obtained elsewhere.
I just spent the last hour searching up a way to retrieve my Library. I found that there are hundreds of people with the same problem, but most of them do not seem to care that they've lost their Library information. I know that I can probably just drag all the song files back into iTunes, but I really do not want the song information - play counts, ratings, etc. - to disappear, as I've spent a lot of time organizing my Library.
Please help. Thank you very much. I am running Windows 7 Professional and am using the latest stable version of iTunes, 9.0.1.8. I also have an iPod Nano that has all the songs and is pretty much updated to the latest iTunes Library (before it reseted itself), if that helps.
Message was edited by: VictorLy

Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash
Hopefully it's not been too long since you last upgraded iTunes, in fact if you get an empty/incomplete library immediately after upgrading then with the following steps you shouldn't lose a thing or need to do any further housekeeping. In the Previous iTunes Libraries folder should be a number of dated iTunes Library files. Take the most recent of these and copy it into the iTunes folder. Rename iTunes Library.itl as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library.itl. Start iTunes. Should all be good, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.
See iTunes Folder Watch for a tool to catch up with any changes since the backup file was created.
When you get it all working make a backup!
See also Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
tt2

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