ITunes Folder 'damaged' lost all playlists and purchased music

Hey,
a couple of days ago I was on itunes and it compeltely randomly came up with an error message saying something along the lines of itunes folder damaged and it froze. When i rebooted itunes, all my playlists and purchased music had gone, along with all my podcasts etc
Also in my itunes folder there is a file that said 'itunes music - damaged'
I have all my music on an external harddrive but was just wondering how i can get it all back?
Mike

This article on how to re-create your library gives one way that is most likely to restore the most stuff. It also links to other methods if that doesn't work.
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