Windows 7 backup deleted music files on external drive

I did a Windows 7 backup to an external drive that also has my music library on it. My itunes folder still exists with all of the artist folders inside but all of my music files are now gone. Inside each folder are .ds_store files.  What happened to my music files?

snives wrote:
Yes, annoying, wish it would just try to play the **** song whether it had an exclamation point or not.
It is trying to play the song, but it can't play it if it can't find it. If you were asked to get pasta from the top shelf and boil it, only to find the pasta wasn't where you were told it should be, you wouldn't be able to boil the pasta. Of course, you are a human so you could look on other shelves until you find the pasta, but a computer program doesn't know how to do this unless it has been programmed to do so.
Also, if you have your iTunes library database file on your internal drive, and the Media folder on the external drive, you will have the problem you described when the drive is disconnected. If you put all of the iTunes files on the external drive and keep the iTunes Media folder along with the database file, it won't forget the location of your media folder. Of course, you won't be able to open your library at all unless you have the drive connected.

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