iTunes backup problem

[Kain]

I wanted to backup all my iTunes songs so what I did was copy the iTunes folder with all my songs onto an external HDD. I have 1594 songs in my iTunes. Just to test my backup, I install iTunes on my brother's laptop and selected "Add Folder to Library..." in iTunes. However, only 1584 songs were added. I don't know which 10 songs are missing (would take too long to check). I know all my songs were backed up onto the HDD because the size of the backup is the same size as the iTunes folder I copied to the HDD.

What's wrong? What should I do?

[FlakMagnet]

Sometimes iTunes decides to rip/download music to other folders. Maybe the missing files are on another drive/folder somewhere?

I had exactly this issue with my wife's PC. She purchases music on iTunes store as well as ripping her own CDs. Sometimes, iTunes will forget that I told it where to put the downloaded stuff, or where to rip CDs to, and I have to reset it.

I think you'll find that your missing tunes are there, just in another (possibly iTunes default) folder.

[Kain]

I preformed the "Consolidate files" function. That means all my songs are copied to the default iTunes music folder. I just copied that folder to the external HDD. Shouldn't they all be there in this case? I mean the number of folders on the external HDD = the number of folders in the iTunes music folder in Windows.