Missing music files

Hi,
I have some missing files in iTunes. There is an iTunes bought audiobook and a CD of my own that appear on the list as dead links ( an ! appears when track is highlighted ) but they don't seem to be on my hard drives anywhere. There is also an entire album ( iTunes bought also ) that is gone from both list and hard drive.
Anyone know how this could happen? I definitely did not delete them.
Thanks in advance.

Missing album from drive and iTunes list no longer an issue.
Only why dead links appearing in iTunes

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You really don't get it, do you.
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I wasn't meaning to "lecture" you but I was - and am - really annoyed. I'm sorry, but I honestly felt that your solution was more about you feeling a need to be technically correct when clearly it was an unhelpful answer and I'm not going to go along with that. And it looks like you're not going to admit your solution was unhelpful.
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Yes, I should have. Technically. Semantically. I suppose. Sure.
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Missing music files

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