A method, system and computer program product for issuing one or more software initiated operations for creating a checkpoint of a register file and memory, and for restoring a register file and memory to the checkpointed state. At the execution of a checkpoint operation, the system returns a condition code indicating success or failure. When the condition code is set equal to one, one or more checkpoints are initiated. Contents of the register file and gated store buffer are stored each time the one or more checkpoints are initiated. When the checkpoint is created, the system notifies software when a hardware checkpoint capacity has been reached. One or more of the software checkpoint, hardware checkpoint, and handler checkpoint are utilized to provide a more precise point of restoration. During software execution, the register file and gated store buffer can be restored as defined by the one or more previous checkpoints.