External hard drive question for using iTunes -- iPod

Hello, I have my music stored on an external hard drive and want to keep it there (it's too much for my laptop). I can drag the music into itunes on my laptop and create playlists then get the music to my ipod during the same session.
However, if I come back weeks later then try and access the music on my external hard drive via iTunes, it does not recognize the file location. It asks me to locate EVERY single song, which is ridiculous.
Is there any way so that I can keep my music on my external hard drive and keep any songs and playlists intact so I don't have to start from scratch every time?
The only thing I can think of is just putting a small amount of music on my laptop, which would work but defeat the goal of only storing it on the external hard drive.
The other option I saw on one of the other posts was by consolidating the library on a new folder on the external hard drive, but I don't have enough free space on the external drive to make a duplicate copy of everything.
Can anyone help me?
Thanks!
DK

Make an alternate iTunes library and have it stored on the external drive.
Now, every time BEFORE you start iTunes on your laptop, make sure the ex HD is plugged in and recognized by the laptop's Windows operating system.
If you open iTunes before connecting the ex HD, guess what - you'll get a new blank library or corrupt library that can't find the files.
The directions for making a different iTunes library are here
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iTunesWin/7.5/en/15502.html

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External hard drive question for using iTunes -- iPod

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