I am trying to load my daughter's ipad on my desktop and I was giving the prompt "iTunes could not connect to the iPad “Eleni” because the device timed out."

Tammiez, "timed out" usually means an internet connection is lost during the time of the syncing. Make sure the mini Ipad is connected to a power source. Then check the settings on your computer to see if it is set to go to sleep after 15 minutes or so. On my Macbook Pro, I go to the System Preferences Icon at the bottom of your screen, then click on the lightbulb icon called "energy saver". Under "energy saver" there is a slide with the categories of Battery and Power Adapter. Click on Battery and move the two slide categories of "computer sleep" and "display sleep" to "never." (On your desktop, it may not have a battery category) This means your computer will not turn off to save energy. Do the same thing under "Power Adapter". This way you are keeping your computer running constantly.

If you have a PC running Windows, go to "start" at bottom of the page and click onto "control panel". Under control panel, look for "power option" and click on that. At all of the prompts of "turn off monitor", "turn off hard disks" system standby" and "system hibernate" click on "never."

Now try again to load your daughter's Ipad again. What you are trying to do is keep your internet connection from being interrupted by keeping the power going on the Ipad and your computer. Sometimes internet signals are just interuppted when there is a lot of use with your provider and you have to try at a different time of day.

After you finish loading your daughter's Ipad, if you have a Mac, be sure to go back to your System Preference and energy saver and adjust the settings for battery and power back to what they were. (I usually set mine at 15 minutes.) With a PC, go back to power option under the control panel and change all your power options back to 15 min or so.

Best of luck in getting your daughter's Ipad mini loaded!