The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for dumping memory. More particularly a computer-implemented method of saving at least some data within volatile storage to non-volatile storage when a computer system panics is described. The method includes the steps of: the computer system defining a specified portion of volatile storage (1) containing data to be saved as a dump device (2), rebooting (8) the computer system without affecting the data within the dump device, and the computer system copying (12) the data in the dump device to non-volatile storage (13). A reboot of the computer system after copying the data to non-volatile storage is not necessary for the computer system to begin (14) normal operation.