How can I make itunes find my library?

I foolishly moved my music library from my PC to an external hard-drive (deleting the old library) and now iTunes can't find the new library.  I know I can just re-import all my songs (I have more than 20000 songs) but I don't wan't to lose the ratings / playlists that I have given these songs.  I can still see these ratings/playlists in iTunes but when I click on them, iTunes 11 can't locate the actual song. I can locate the song for iTunes but I seem to have to do this for each individual song.  This situation may well be beyond rescue but I wanted to ask before I made the matter any worse. Help!

If you moved the entire iTunes folder structure intact, then you should be able to hold down the shift key while starting iTunes, then select "Choose Library" on the pop-up window, then navigate to where the "iTunes Library.itl" file was moved to and select it.  iTunes should now open from the new location.

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    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for more details.
    Get a copy of the GNU General Public License by writing to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301, USA.
    or visit http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
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  • How can I make iTunes de-authorize my Mac after erasing it's hard drive?

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