"so I had to pull them through the rest of the way with a little force Don't do that next time, ALWAYS remove the screws instead of forcing ! You would loose maybe 10mins but now you lost 200$ ! "Is it possible that the cables got damaged in doing this" Yes, of course, this should have been done carefully. "If so, does that mean I have to buy a screen/digitizer replacement" First check whether the cables are damaged or not, and check if you can repair them easily or if you have to buy new. Last, check if this is the problem, it sometimes happen we trust something is faulty but finally it's not.
You're very lucky your Iphone is still working. Your battery was not the same lucky I guess: You'll have to change your battery which is dead, you've two options: -Use apple care that will steal you 80$ and will take 2 weeks -Do it yourself, that will cost you 20-30$ and will take 30 mins I let you choose the good option ;) iPhone 4S Battery Replacement
I maybe found something interesting: Please click on the picture to see it closer. The small part seems to be a wire I cut. The question is the following: Should I fill the hole with soldering iron ? There are two cases: -Only one wire was cut, the Ipod will work again -More than one wire were cut: they'll be connected together and the Ipod will most likely not work any longer. (cause of a short-circuit that would break the whole thing) Should I try it out ?
You can easily recover: -Download here ubuntu: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop -Burn it -Insert the CD in your computer -Boot it -Click on try ubuntu without installing -Click on the file manager -Plug an external HDD or a usb key and copy the needed documents Hope this helps you