ITunes can't see external library from older computer

Hey guys. I had a 2008 iMac with iTunes set up to read all of my music, movies, TV shows, etc. from an external hard drive. I recently got a new MacBook Pro and am trying to get iTunes 12.1 to see all of my existing media, with no luck.
My iMac was running Mavericks (and I guess iTunes 11?), which I assume auto-updated my older library and paths to be compatible. However, my MacBook Pro is running Yosemite (10.10.2) with iTunes 12.1. It used to be that you could just point iTunes to your existing iTunes or iTunes/Music folder and everything would instantly be available in iTunes with no problem. I've noticed in 12.1, though, that iTunes now builds its own iTunes Media folder, separates music from TV shows, movies, ringtones, etc., and has an iTunes library file in addition to several other database sidecar files.
My question is, how the **** do I get iTunes to just see my existing media? When I try pointing iTunes to the external HD, it creates an all new iTunes Media folder with db files in it. If I create that folder myself, it creates its own subfolder with existing db files. Even then, the db files don't actually point to any of my music, but rather to an empty library.
I've tried "add to library", but instead of just adding the info for accessibility, like it used to do, iTunes is actually copying every one of my files into the new folder. Given how huge my library is, I don't have the time or HD space for iTunes to copy and paste what's already there.
Any suggestions? I just want to point iTunes to my already existing files and folders from the previous version of iTunes without duplicating or losing anything.

I have not updated iTunes in a long time. While I cannot say that iTunes 12 would not have problems opening an iTunes 2 library generally a newer version can open any older version library, but not the other way around. Are you trying to open an iTunes 2 library?
As far as iTunes and the option key thing is concerned the library is a file called "iTunes Library.itl" and it is located in the iTunes folder, not the media folder. A media folder is only a bunch of media files and not a library, the way a pile of books on an empty city block is not a city library. If you do not have that file then you do not have a structured library and will have to build one from scratch with your media files. Sometimes people put only media on an external drive and leave the rest of iTunes which makes up the complete library on the internal drive. You need to recover that part (basically your iTunes folder) and replace the iTunes folder on your computer with it. It has the .itl file containing all the information pointing to those files on the external drive.
What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management
What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html
Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
iTunes 9 [and later]: Understanding iTunes Media Organization - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3847 - plus supplemental information about organizing to new structure https://discussions.apple.com/message/26404702#26404702
In terms of basic iTunes file functionality, apart from a bit of renaming and restructuring about 6 years ago nothing much has changed since before iTunes was iTunes and it was a shareware product called Soundjam.
Image of folder structure and explanation of different iTunes versions (turingtest2 post) - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-7392 and making an iTunes library portable.

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ITunes can't see external library from older computer

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