Many Russian verbs have several perfect forms with prefixes "по-" and "с-". "C-" prefix usually means that the act is complete, while "по-" means doing something without having a tangible result. Ex. "сходить" - to go (and come back), "походить" - to walk for a while.
In case of "делать", predominant perfect form is "сделать". "Я сделал ошибку" - "I made a mistake". The word "поделать" has a much more narrow use. Ex. "Он что-то там поделал" - "He did something there", the implied meaning is that the work was either incomplete or incompetent.
There is, however, one very common phrase with the word "поделать" - "Ничего не поделать", meaning "There's nothing can be done". Using the word "сделать" in this case will be inappropriate, unless we talk about an event in the past, when a window of opportunity to fix something existed, but now it's gone - "Ничего уже не сделаешь" - "Nothing can be done now".
P.S. The typical "incomplete, intermittent" meaning of "по-" verbs does not hold true when there are no corresponding "с-" verbs, or the "с-" verb has a distinctly different meaning. In those cases "по-" verbs describe successfully completed acts. Ex. "постирать" - "to wash" (clothes), "починить" - "to fix". There are no respective words like "сстирать" or "счинить". Ex.2 "помыть" - "to wash" (rigid object) - the word "смыть" - "to wash something away" - has a different meaning.
