1. A method for providing a software initiated checkpoint operation that reports and responds to a failure of a hardware checkpoint, said method comprising: processor logic detecting when one or more hardware resources are exhausted; initiating the software initiated checkpoint operation to generate a software initiated checkpoint; detecting, during the software initiated checkpoint operation, when a gated store buffer is full, which indicates that the checkpoint operation has failed; and in response to the gated store buffer not being full, storing the contents of one or more of a register file and a memory as the register state corresponding to the software-initiated checkpoint to enable restoration to that checkpoint when a current register state is not a desired register state.