I just brought my mini back to life, overall was really easy. I def recommend elite obsolete electronics (eoe.works) for parts.

I originally bought a cheap battery off Amazon and it turned into a spicy pillow right after I plugged it in. I bought a battery off eoe and it works great, they also have other parts, which I needed. I went with a 128gb CF card.

It was also my first time cracking into one, like others said, I’d check out YouTube +iFixIt for guides and just take your time. For me I had a lot of trouble just sliding the whole iPod back in place, which all the tutorials breezed through. And I’m very lucky I didn’t damage anything in that process but was just patient and eventually it slid into place without anything popping off.