Force iTunes not to open unless external drive is mounted

Scenario:

iTunes library is located on an external HD (wall powered not bus powered) connected to my airport extreme. I mentioned the wall power only because other discussions mentioned the USB port on the APE is inadequate. My extrenal drive sometimes loses its connection to my macbook pro (in system prefs>energy saver I already unchecked "put hard disk to sleep when possible") and then I open iTunes with out checking the connection first. Then the problems start, I buy stuff, automatic downloads start.... You see where I am going with this. Not to mention sometimes I have to restart my airport extreme just to get the MPB to connect, but that is another post.

My question, is there a way to either tell iTunes to NOT create a defualt library or tell iTunes to NEVER open unless extrenal HD is mounted/connected?

I like the last option better and I am pretty sure the answer is a simple "no that can not be done" but there HAS to be a solution.

Thanks you to any who have some advice.🙂

p.s. if an Apple engineer or programmer reads this PLEASE include this feature in the next version if iTunes.

p.s.s all products are fully up to date on software