How to setup iTunes on a PC to use existing music

My partner has a PC laptop provided by her work. She wishes to use iTunes with it but store her music on an external drive. We already have her previous iTunes library on an external drive, but we don't have the iTunes Library.itl file, etc.
My question is: how can my partner setup iTunes on her work laptop to use her previous iTunes library/music on her external drive?
My concerns are:
Changing iTunes preferences and telling it the iTunes library is in a folder on the external drive does nothing. iTunes just ignores the music in this folder because the iTunes Library.itl file, etc on the c:/ drive don't know anything about it. (It's a new installation of iTunes.)
I've already tried importing the previous iTunes library. We chose the File > Library > Add folder menu (if I've got that right) but it only imported about 500 songs from the various folders. This tells to me that iTunes for PC is buggy - it cannot scan many folders, either wide or deep, to find songs in subfolders.
Windows may allocate a different drive letter each time the external drive is attached. For example, if my partner is not VPN'd into her work network then Windows may allocate a "lower" drive letter for the exernal drive than if she is logged into her work VPN.
I'd rather not have to reimport all the songs.
We have a copy of all her former iTunes library music on both an iPod Classic and an iPhone 4. Is it possible and better to import the music from one of these devices?
Many thanks!

Although you can set up iTunes with the library on the C: drive and the media folder elsewhere there are, as you have found out, pitfalls with that approach. Ideally you would have access to the "old" library, complete with the .itl file and simply copy this onto the external drive. Failing that then I would recommend you build the library at X:\iTunes where X: is the current drive letter assigned to the external drive. Your media folder should be X:\iTunes\iTunes Media. If you deliberately assign a specific letter for your drive, perhaps M: for Media, then it should always be given that letter.
With your library redirected to the external drive, not just the media folder, if you do attempt to start iTunes with the drive not present iTunes will complain it can't find the library. Simply close iTunes, connect the drive and start iTunes again. All will be OK, no links will get broken, and you won't have to correct the media folder location.
Regarding specific points
1. Note, changing the media folder location only tells iTunes where to put new files that you rip, consolidate, download etc. It is not a command to scan that folder and add or replace the current content with what is found there.
2. When using the File > Library > Add folder to library method iTunes will ignore any files for which it has insufficient security permissions. Check these and ensure your user account and system have full access to the entire drive. A drive moved from one system to another may well not have the correct settings.
3. Dealt with above
4. Sounds like things are broken now, I guess you'll need to do what ever works. For the stuff that is currently in the library first copy the current iTunes folder from C: to X:\iTunes. Now click the icon to start iTunes and immediately press and continue to hold down the shift key. Choose the library on the external drive. Check the media folder has been reset to X:\iTunes\iTunes Media, edit if necessary. At this stage I recommend you have the Edit > Preferences > Advanced options  Keep iTunes Media folder organized turned on and Copy iTunes Media folder when adding to the library turned off. After fixing any potential issues with file permissions use iTunes Folder Watch to add in new files from your media folders and remove those that iTunes has lost track of. You can then either consolidate the content (creating duplicate copies of anything that is located outside of the iTunes Media folder which you will then need to tidy up) or use my script ConsolidateByMoving which does pretty much just what it says.
5. If you really can't gain access to the backup media that is supposed to be on the external drive then see this post from forum regular Zevoneer for options on moving your iPod data back to your computer.
tt2

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