How to reinstall iTunes and not lose everything from external drive.

I had to reformat my hard drive.  All my iTunes files were (and still are) on an external drive.
When I download the latest version of iTunes, I installed and set up my preferences to change the location of iTunes Media File to External Drive J:\iTunes\iTunes Music.
When iTunes installs, it creates files and folders in C:\Users\Userxyz\Music\itunes
So....Because iTunes didn't show any of my music, playlists, apps, etc. and because I had changed where to keep media files,
I selected the "Add Folder to Library" option
iTunes successfully displays all the music from this external drive and left the music files where they were.
But....it also copied all of this music to a folder on my desktop called "Copy of Itunes".  Now, I have 3 *itl and "xlm files.  One on External Drive J, another in Music\iTunes on Drive C, and a 2nd in Copy of iTunes on the desktop.
Missing from iTunes are my purchases.  All apps, purchased and free.  Playlists.
I have a folder "Mobile Applications"  on the external drive and in Copy of iTunes, but both are empty.
I wonder if I already lost my purchases.
I would also like to keep my files on an external drive because I don't have enough space to keep iTunes on my main drive.
I also use Vista.....
I hope someone can help.  This is all very confusing
Jeri

When you say all of your iTunes files were on the external drive, do you mean all, or only the stuff that's inside the red outline below. The most important part of your library is the database file iTunes Library.itl which holds the records of your playlists, ratings and all other data that doesn't get stored in tags.
Typical layout of iTunes folders:
When the media folder is inside the main iTunes folder as shown above then the library is portable, and if the library is relocated to an external drive it will survive a wipe of the internal drive. However most users typically split their library when they find they are running out of room on the internal drive by choosing a new locaton for the media folder and then consolidating.
If this is what you have done, and you don't have a backup of the library files, the iTunes Library.itl file in particicular, then your old library is lost forever. If you do have the files then it may be possible to get the right library file reconnected to the media provided you haven't been moving things around randomly.
You can check each of the .itl files that you have on your computer in turn using the hold-down-shift-when-starting-iTunes method. If one of these has the correct playlists, and the drive letter of the external drive is the same as before, then it should all work.
tt2

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