loaded up iTunes which i haven't used for a while but it seems to have the info from most of the tracks in my library, the ones on my external hard drive.

In the library the lost tracks show an exlamation mark before them and if you play them or right click and choose "get info" it finds it straight away but you can only do one at a time.

So i do i fix it so they're found automatically or how to do a bulk "get info"?

thanks

it won't be an issue with the tags themselves, which will still be on the files, but with the library. delete your itunes library – make sure you don't select the "delete actual files option as well"(!) and then open the containing folder on the drive and drag the lot back onto itunes.

ta, yes i know i can do that, the problem is i've got 300Gb of tunes on the hard drive but i've cherry picked 20Gb from there for my ipod and i didn't put them in their own folder so if i start again it will take ages

ah right, well a select all, a rightclick and a 'get info' might do the trick for those that are there though may take a while.