How can I transfer my iTunes Media Library from one PC to another without losing files and making a mess of the file and album structure?

I have imported a number of Café del Mar CD's to iTunes, and iTunes keeps scattering the tunes into several different folders in iTunes Media. It also has trouble finding album information, unless it has been downloaded from iTunes Store. Previous versions of iTunes I have tried didn't have this problem.
I've tried to tidy the files manually in iTunes Media, but that usually results in duplicates, so I stopped messing with it. I actually wouldn't mind iTunes blowing up my albums into a nightmare file structure of hyper categorization in iTunes Media (Album, Album Artist, Artist, etc.) if only it recognised its own mess when I transfer the library from one iTunes library into another.
An example: I downloaded Cafe del Mar - Essential Elements featuring 13 tunes, two of these can be found in the files Cafe del Mar/Cafe del Mar Essential Elements, iTunes also created the folder Cafe del Mar/Cafe del_Mar Essential Elements containing 0 tunes!?! and the rest of the tunes are found under Rue de Soleil in the root folder, indicating ONE of the artists as the criteria for creating a folder of tunes!?!
I am trying with every fiber NOT to hate this program, and would appreciate it if someone could explain to me how I can move an iTunes Media library of aprox 54 gb from my desktop via an external harddisk onto my laptop. I have tried 4 times, and everytime the result varies. Sometime I transfer 3000 files, other times 4000. Which files follow and don't is random. I lose files tranferring to the external harddisk and lose even more files from the external disk to the new library on my Lap. Do I have to transfer song for song or can this genius program actually transfer a larger amount of files without losing half the files and duplicating the rest?
Is there a limit of size or amount of files?

Backup with this User Tip, restore the library to the new computer using the same tool, keep the backup up-to-date in future. Deauthorize the old computer if you no longer need to access protected content on it.
As to your issues with compilations albums select all the tracks, set the Album Artist to Various Artists and on the options tab set Part of a compilation to Yes. See Grouping tracks into albums for details.
tt2

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