has iTunes eaten my music?

My iMac crashed. After rebooting, I cliocked on an mp4a file to play it. Normally, it simply boots up in iTunes and everything else is normal. This time, when iTunes booted up, the mp4a file was the only one there. Everything else appeared to be gone.

We're talking thousands of pieces of music, most uploaded from my CDs, others bought from iTunes.

What can I do to get it back?

The list in itunes is a database of sorts. It is not the actual music but rather a list of it. Click on file and add folder to library then navigate to the folder where your music resides to add it back. Simple enough...

Your list likely became corrupt after the crash and was replaced with a new one.

To clarify a bit on Da Flake's response: iTunes keeps the actual music files in a slightly separate place, so chances are most or all of them are still where they were and perfectly fine. The "database" iTunes uses to keep TRACK of them has probably gotten corrupted as he said, and when that happens iTunes defaults to a new library file.

First thing you should do is look in (your home folder)->Music->iTunes (folder) and see if identifiable music files are still there. DO NOT MOVE THEM.

If everything looks to be there, you can re-import them as Da Flake mentioned. And once you've done that, you might want to consider developing a backup strategy.

It's still happening, every time I reboot. Am I better off uninstalling iTunes altogether, deleting all its libraries (corrupted or not), and starting over?