Good afternoon Justine24,
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!
I understand you are having trouble restoring your iPad mini with iTunes. The resources below explain what to do if iTunes doesn't recognize your device:
If you forgot the passcode for your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, or your device is disabled
Connect your iOS device to your computer and open iTunes.
While your device is connected, force restart it:
On an iPhone 6s and earlier, iPad, or iPod touch: Press and hold both the Home and the Top (or Side) buttons at the same time. Keep holding them until you see the recovery-mode screen.
- When you see the option to Restore or Update, choose Restore.
iTunes will download software for your device. If it takes more than 15 minutes, your device will exit recovery mode and you'll need to repeat steps 2 and 3.
- Wait for the process to finish. Then you can set up and use your device.
If you can't update or restore your device using recovery mode, or you can't use recovery mode because of broken or stuck buttons, contact Apple Support. Then follow the steps to set up service for your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
If you've tried the steps above and continue to get the error that iTunes can't connect to your iPad, you may need to follow the steps in the following resource, then try recovery mode as described above again:
If iTunes doesn't recognize your iPhone, iPad, or iPod
Take care.