iTunes help (folders, etc.)

I need a little help here.

Basically, this is what has happened. A few months ago I accidentally renamed my iTunes folder "iTunes 08/01." This resulted in iTunes creating a separate folder "iTunes" for all the new music I added. Somehow it was pulling data from both folders and consolidating them into the iTunes app. Play counts, artwork, everything was accurate (the music, artwork, though were separated into two different folders: pre-August[iTunes 08/01], and post-August[iTunes]). I ended up with two "iTunes Library Extras.itdb" "iTunes Library Genius.itdb" "iTunes Library.itl" and "iTunes Music Library.xml" files. Actually a third .itl file showed up as well.

So I saw this, and attempted to consolidate the two. First I switched the names, thinking it would be easier to get the newer stuff (which was much less in volume) into the much bigger older folder, and assuming that iTunes app would read the "iTunes" folder. So I changed iTunes 08/01 into iTunes. However when I tried moving in music from the newer "iTunes [now iTunes xtra]" folder I noticed that there were songs that I had deleted still in the "iTunes 08/01 [now iTunes]" folder, which led me to believe that something was wrong. I then tried switching it back (names of folders and everything), and the iTunes app reverted to reading only one folder, "iTunes" so that none of the music I've loaded in the past few months shows up and all playcounts have reverted back to what they were several months ago. Good news is nothing's deleted, but my ideal goal is to get all the music into one folder with the correct playcounts, artwork, etc. OR get it to read both folder again.

To be clear, when I say "nothing's deleted" I mean that I still have all the music, itdb, xml and itl files. The iTunes app has, however, deleted all the new songs I added from the past few months. Again, I do have the files for these though.

I know that the playcounts are stored in the .itl files, but I now have 3 of them (one from the old "iTunes 08/01" folder, two from the newer "iTunes" folder. The mystery 3rd one is titled "iTunes Library 2011-10-09.itl.") I don't know if it's possible that iTunes was somehow adding them together/ using them in combination, or if it was simply using one. I'm hesitant to try switching them out for fear that some info could get wiped. (I've actually renamed "iTunes" folder to "iTunes 2" folder, So I now have a third iTunes folder which the iTunes app automatically created when I opened it after I changed the other file name, with nothing in it).

I don't know how clear that was, but I'll be monitoring this thread closely, so don't hesitate to ask questions. Thanks in advance!!

Couldn't figure out a way to solve this through using the music and .itl files I already had. I'm lucky that I kept my 160GB iPod synched to iTunes. Used iRip software to transfer files and metadata back to iTunes cleanly. Did a lot of experimenting and this was the only solution I came to. iRip is fantastic by the way, I tried using SenUti and it was glitchy and didn't upload all metadata (and there was no way to go back and upload the missing data--though it was an older version).