Why must I relink files every time I open project?

Hello!  I have seen this come up before but never seen a good answer.

1) I had to move my growing project to a larger external drive, and now every time I open it, I need to relink the files to the new drive.  I can tell it is expecting to see the old drive, as it shows the name of the old drive as the location that's missing.  How can I gently tell Premiere that the old drive is gone forever, and it needs to stop looking for it? I tried saving it as a new project, and it still wants that old drive.  Such a nostalgic heart, Premiere...

2) Is there a way to make the program forget files that have been deleted from the project and will never be relinked?  It asks for these every time as well.  They've left, Premiere, you need to let go!

I've been editing for 20 years, and I remember that with Avid and Final Cut Pro, this needed to be done once, and the programs remembered the new location.  So I'm sure there must be a way with Premiere.

Thanks!

Jason