Why can iTunes NOT FIND songs on an EXTERNAL DRIVE

I've read many posts regarding the use of external drives for iTunes data storage. Here's my situation:
I've just restored my computer to it's factory settings, then installed iTunes 9.2.1.5 My iTunes consists of songs only and they reside on an external drive following this path: E:\iTunes Music\(artist)\(album)\(song[s])
iTunes Music, artist name, and album name are all folders. The songs appear in numeric order (01, 02, etc.), and are individual MPEG files.
I have tried changing the iTunes Media Folder location to: E:\iTunes Music (by following: Edit-Preferences-Advanced) Indeed, I have attempted all possible folder paths...right down to individual songs...nothing works. iTunes simply does not see the folder(s)/songs. What's up?
The frustrating thing is that this very same external drive worked just fine before this whole affair! ??? What am I missing? Please provide a detailed answer. Many of us out here would like to know the secret.

You'd have had more luck if you'd moved your library files out to your external drive as well as the media. That way, when you'd reinstalled all you would have needed to do was use SHIFT-start iTunes and point it at the library on the external.
Next time you reinstall Windows backup the entire *Documents and Settings* or Users folders from the C:\ drive so that after the rebuild you can restore anything you discover you still want from your old profile.
Better yet do these backups before something goes wrong, say once a month. The following tool is great for general backups of any specifc set of folders, not just iTunes.
<hr>
*Fast backup for iTunes library (Windows Only)*
Grab SyncToy 2.1, a free tool from MS. This can be used to copy your entire iTunes library (& other important data folders) onto another hard drive or network share. You can then use SyncToy periodically to synchronise or echo your library to the backup. A preview will show which files need to be updated giving you a chance to spot unexpected changes and during the run only the new or updated files will be copied saving lots of time. And if your media is all organised below the main iTunes folder then you should also be able to open the backup library on any system running the same version of iTunes.
<hr>
tt2

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Why can iTunes NOT FIND songs on an EXTERNAL DRIVE

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