How do I relocate missing songs that were originally put onto my iTunes from a CD?

Question

Obviously I can't just navigate through my folders on my pc as the missing tracks were put into my iTunes via multiple CDs. How (without re-importing all my CD's) do I relocate all my songs/albums.
Thanks
Tom

Answer 1

It all depends on why they are lost and whether you have any form of backup or device that might hold them. It might help to identify which files are lost to iTunes which you can do with this set of playlists:
Lost & Found playlists
Create a playlist called Found, select everything in Music and drag it into the Found playlist. Create a smart playlist called Lost matching All the rules Playlist is Music and Playlist is not Found. Your lost tracks will be in this playlist.
Follow my instructions from the first post with a single missing file. Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to get info, then cancel when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the summary tab for the location that iTunes thinks the file should be. It will begin file://localhost and end with the filename. Search your entire computer for that filename. If it can be found then where it is might explain why they went missing and how they might be recovered. If it can't be found at all, you could try a few more. Failing that at least you know from the Lost playlist what CDs you need to rerip.
tt2