ITunes Music Folder will not play from external hardrive after setting the correct path

I've decided to try and create some more space for my music collection and decided to keep my entire iTunes library on a portable external hardrive. I researched how to do so online and was successful at first. I set the correct path from the advanced menu so that iTunes would recognize and save music to the folder on my HD. It worked fine last night, but today when I try and access it I get the, "could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" error message when I try and play a song anywhere in iTunes. I then tried to import the library from my external hardrive and then everything was duplicated. I some how reversed the duplication by using time machine and then redownloading iTunes, which is a riduculous story in itself, but thankfully, I am back at square one.
I have over 24,000 songs with a majority of them rated as well as playlists I do not want to lose. I don't understand why it will not play the songs. Can anyone help me?

If you are going to have the library on an ext HD the transfer the entire iTunes folder. This way you capture all the files - not just the music.
Launch iTunes with the 'option' key down and follow the dialog - tell iTunes to open the iTunes library file on the ext HD and things should be ok.
MJ

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