Problems w/ iTunes locating files after moving library to external HDD

Question

My iTunes collection of Music has outgrown my iBook hard unfortunately, so I finally decided to switch all my music to an external hard drive. I followed this tutorial given by iLounge (http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive/) step by step, and the hope was that it would be a clean transition so I could make space on my laptop, however I ran into a huge glitch. After going into my preferences and changing where the Library was located (from the laptop to Ext. HD), I went ahead and consolidated my library to the Ext HD. That went okay, or so I thought, but when I tried using some of the songs, I noticed the exclamation point meaning it could find the the song. So i went try and find the song on the external hard drive and for reason, when iTunes was consolidating(copying) the music some songs didn't transfer. I've reset location to the default on the laptop HD, but I'm having to go through and manually locate files that iTunes can't "find". Is there an easier way to get the library reload the original location of the files w/o deleting everything and reimporting the whole library? And how would I do a clean transition?

Answer 1

Still wrote:
maybe this will help some of you. it worked for me.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5572959&#5572959
about the middle of the page they suggest starting iTunes while holding option. then choose "rebuild library"
This did not work for me. I still get icon for "dead tracks" on most of my music. And when holding the option key you just get to choose the library - not rebuild. I'll look to see if there is another way to rebuild. I did find this on Doug's Apple Scripts site: http://dougscripts.com/itunes/solutions01.php#003
+• Wait a sec! I didn't delete any files, but I still see "!" next to some tracks. What gives?+
+Some users report that their files are intact, yet on occasion, some files go AWOL...they still exist, but for some reason iTunes can't see them, and the tracks they represent show the dreaded "!". To discover the facts, you can use List MIA's, mentioned above, which will create a list of these tracks; then you can go hunting for them. To re-associate these tracks, you must click on them; iTunes will ask if you want to locate the missing file, and you weave through an Open/Save dialog for each one.+
+I have read reports of people having success with 1) Repairing Permissions (see your Mac Help) and 2) ensuring that your files are set to "Open with:" iTunes—you set this in a single respresentative file's Get Info box; be sure to click "Change all". This latter solution worked for me when, mysteriously, iTunes failed to recognize older files I had ripped with SoundJam and MACast in OS 9 back in the last century.+
+I have often been asked: "But my tracks are right there! Can't you write a script that just looks for the files in the Music folder?" It's not that easy. However I did put together iTunes Track CPR. It uses the existing data from a "dead track" to try and locate its file in the Music folder. It is not perfect (except for play counts, tag data will be rescued), but it does work well under most circumstances.+
I am going to try the iTunes Track CPR and see if that helps.