In one embodiment, an operating system (OS) or hypervisor running on a computer system can allocate a portion of the volatile memory of the computer system as a persistent memory allocation. The OS/hypervisor can further receive a signal from the computer system's Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) indicating an alternating current (AC) power loss or cycle event and, in response to the signal, can save data in the persistent memory allocation to a nonvolatile backing store. Then, upon restoration of AC power to the computer system, the OS/hypervisor can restore the saved data from the nonvolatile backing store to the persistent memory allocation.