Multiple (old) iTunes Library files found on my external, what to do?

My external drive (which I once used as the location for my iTunes library to save space on my old iMac but with my new computer hard drive space is not an issue and I have my iTunes folder on my native, internal drive) has *my old* iTunes folder with:
+(a folder)+ Previous iTunes Libraries
iTunes 4 Music Library
iTunes 4 Music Library (Old)
iTunes Library
iTunes Library 2006-09-14
iTunes Library 2007-09-08
iTunes Library Extras.itdb
iTunes Library Genius.itdb
iTunes Library.xml
iTunes Music Library.xml
The folder "Previous iTunes Libraries" contains these files:
iTunes Library 2006-09-14
iTunes Library 2007-09-08
iTunes Library 2008-01-16
iTunes Library 2008-09-30
iTunes Library 2008-12-26
iTunes Library 2009-06-16
With me so far?! What's alarming to me is that I have so many files with the "iTunes Library" name...moreover, it seems as if my CURRENT and ACTIVE iTunes Library database on my hard drive in my music folder that was last updated "today" is only 5.8 MB in size, while the older iTunes Library databases on my external drive that are listed above are sized 5.2, 10.5, 11.8, 14.3, 15.7, and 15.8 MB!
This implies to me that I've lost some important files or data in transferring my iTunes back from my external to my new local, internal drive.
What should I do with these multiple (and currently unused) iTunes Libraries found on my peripheral drive? I try to open them and nothing seems to happen. I just don't want to lose any tracks as my library is large and varied.
Any thoughts?

"New versions of iTunes sometimes include enhancements to the iTunes library. When you open the new version of iTunes, iTunes upgrades your existing library to the new format and places a copy of the old library in the Previous Libraries folder. If everything goes fine during your upgrade to the latest version of iTunes, you can delete the older iTunes Library files." Read more: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
If you think you are missing some songs from your current library, this application will list the file paths of the files in your designated "iTunes Media" folder which are not in iTunes' library. Additionally, you can select a different parent folder and its contents will be compared to the iTunes library. Options to Add a selection of found files to iTunes or move them to the Trash. http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=musicfolderfilesnotadded2

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Moved library to external HD, iTunes still uses old iTunes Library.itl file

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See Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash. Hopefully you have a more recent library file that you can restore.
tt2

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For your information, I belong to the Illini Folk Dance Society at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Illinois. We have some 200 titles on 78 rpm records, already digitized, and approximately 600 or so on 45 rpm, which I am now in the process of recording. After that, there are many LP recordings to do (our total collection consists of approximately 3000 titles), although they can keep for a while. After lots of experimenting, I decided that the quality of the 78s and 45s merited the 44.1/16-bit recording levels, and that is working out nicely, and it keeps the files to a reasonable size. I started out with Garage Band (all the 78s were done that way), but got fed up with that pretty quickly, especially the tight link to iTunes, so when Audacity came along, I started using it, and am very happy with it. We have one 250 gig hard drive, and I plan to add another. Also, I plan to put everything on CDs, which is why the present project. I wrote a PostScript program to print the titles on the labels in circular arcs, and am writing a Perl script to parse out the titles and sizes, grouping things in sets that will fit on one CD. If you are interested in the PostScript program, I will gladly send it to you. The Perl script is fairly trivial.
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[email protected]

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I transfered all my library on an external hard disk and lost the itunes library files. Itunes created new ones but I lost all the playlists.
How can I copy the playlists presents on the Iphone directly on Itunes ?
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Hi,
I did the same XP to Windows 7 upgrade about 18 months ago. I decided to keep iTunes permanently on the external drive than the c drive to save c: drive space.
ITunes database has pointers to MP3 files located in Artist's directories. If you want to use a different location than the default C:\ drive for iTunes, then you need to recreate the Itunes database by deleting all songs in iTunes, then change the default location for iTunes files to your external drive. Then import the MP3 files from the external drive into the empty iTunes database through the iTunes import facility.
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After migrating my library from an xp machine to a new vista machine, I get this error whenever I open iTunes.
The itunes library file cannot be saved (-48)
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Anybody know how to fix this?

I am getting this error on my Vista computer. I've tried rebuilding the library and that didn't help. Interestingly I had the same error on my old XP computer. When I migrated my music from the old to the new I copied the music files but I created a new libary files; so that indicates to me that the problem is not Vista specific.
I am starting to wonder if it's a software confict, ie some software that I had installed on both computers or a corrupt file among my music.
There is another discussion about this error here, but there's nothing conclusive http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1202649
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Message was edited by: Madam

Multiple (old) iTunes Library files found on my external, what to do?

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