How to activate or import playlists from newly moved iTunes library on an external hard drive?

I have just moved my whole iTunes library from my notebook to an external HDD, due to space constraints. I followed the Apple steps to do so, and finally got all my songs and the rest to appear in the player.
However, my custom playlists do not appear in the playes. All my devices have a combination of various playlists loaded onto them. I have also just got the iPhone 5s and want to load similar playlists onto the new phone.....but my playlists are missing....
This will take me days to recreate........any suggestions please?  (i have already removed the iTunes directory from the laptop   )
Thx

Sorry, by mapped i meant what you described above...changing my designated media folder to the one on the new EHD.
I did try holding in the option/alt key as suggested by apple elsewhere in the forum but only opened the a window indicating where the shortcut file is located i.e. the iTunes.exe properties window. I tried the shift key too as well as several other but could not get the window asking me to choose a library.
Tried to copy a screen grab in but it doesnt allow me to.
When i opened the player after moving the folder there was nothing in my libraries except for a few purchesed songs and movies saved on icloud. I got my music in by going to file>add folder, and selected the music folder on the new drive. This "imported" my music to the player.
I must mention also i am using Win8 and the latest version of iTunes, but i live is South Africa and ive noticed my laptop keyboard keys/functions on the HP are different from previous computers i have used.
Where should the playlst files reside when using an EHD? Still on the main computer or on the new EHD?

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