ITunes message "the original file could not be found"

I recently consolidated my music files to an external hard drive using the "consolidate" feature in iTunes. I imported the music library files and everything seemed to be good. I even did it a second time on to another external hard drive that I back up my entire computer to so that I actually had two copies of my music. At the time I checked that I could access the music on either hard drive by picking the library on that respect external unit with the other drive turned off. Both units were disconnected from the computer for several days and when I went to play iTunes I get the message that "the original file could not be found". It doesn't matter which hard drive library I try to access the result is the same.
I have exported the library text file to Access and there is no information in the "Location" column. It would appear that this information was not saved or lost somehow. The tech article on "Recreating the iTunes Library file" didn't work as iTunes stated the same thing, "the original file could not be found".
All my music is still there, iTunes library file just lost the information as to the location of the individual files. Anybody know of a way or a program to reestablish those locations with out going through 10,000 songs one by one to reestablish its location?
HP Windows XP

I am having some difficulty understanding exactly what set up your have and are you on iTunes 7? You don’t need to use consolidate to get your library onto an external drive if you are on 7, there is an easier way.
There are two important considerations, the location of the library files and the location of the iTunes Music folders. You have iTunes Music folders on two different external drives, but what about the library files – iTunes Library.itl and iTunes Music Library.xml?
Do you have those on the internal drive in My Music\iTunes, or do you have separate copies on the two external drives in iTunes folders there? Something like
X:\Music\iTunes\ containing the libraries and X:\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music for the music files.
The more precise information about how you have things set up the better, and what is the location of your iTunes Music folder as set in Edit>Preferences>Advanced>General.
What method were you using to try to connect to the music on the two drives, and do they always have the same drive letters?
In general terms you get exclamation marks against your tracks for the following reasons:
The song file or a folder in its path was renamed
The song file or the folder it is in has been moved
The song file has been deleted
The device containing the song files e.g. external drive is not accessible

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I was not complete clear.
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If you press the reset button you just give to itunes its default setting as for the position of the music files: probably this will be a good choice if you have never changed any default preference.
But before I would check the folders and see if the songs are really there
In my iTune I have this, and I believe it is the default.
Users/YOURHOMEFOLDERNAME/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music

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Hello Turintest2,
I am having a similar problem. I have over 4000 songs giving me this error. I certainily don't want to go in one by one and find them. I know you wrote a script for Windows but I am a Mac user. Is there a fix for me? Here is the info on where the song is currently (used by doing the get info)
Here's a shot of my preferences:
Just FYI, I know that apparently iTunes is looking for this music in the trash. However, if I go here:
Then I find the music there as well. (Which is where it is in my preferences.)
Please help! I don't want to have to go through over 4000 songs and update them one by one.

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ITunes message "the original file could not be found"

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