Itunes not locating library on external drive

arrrggggh...
i have faced this before but forgot how to resolve it. i rarely use itune except to import more music and update ipod/appleTV. my library is all ripped cd's on an external drive. the correct drive and file is shown under edit>preferences>advances for the iTune Media Folder Location.
today i fired up the system and imported 'take 5 / dave brubeck'. it successfully was ripped to the external drive and appleTV sync'd.
however all of my other songs (>10k) show up in the playlist with the dreaded '!'. when i click on them iTunes says they cannot be located and would i like to search? searching attaches that song, but i do not want to do this 10k times.
how can i get iTunes to find all songs in the library?
tia

edit to add.. the library (.itl) file is located on the C drive correctly, it is just not associating with the actual MPEG files on the I drive...

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