diff --git a/tools/server/server-context.cpp b/tools/server/server-context.cpp
index 988d9f365190..d02038cb6c5e 100644
--- a/tools/server/server-context.cpp
+++ b/tools/server/server-context.cpp
@@ -2247,6 +2247,14 @@ struct server_context_impl {
     void create_checkpoint(server_slot & slot, const int64_t n_tokens_cur, llama_pos pos_min, llama_pos pos_max) {
         const int id_task = slot.task->id;
 
+        // the buffers of an evicted checkpoint go to the new one: a fresh vector is zero-filled by resize()
+        std::vector<uint8_t> spare_tgt;
+        std::vector<uint8_t> spare_dft;
+        const auto keep_spare = [&](common_prompt_checkpoint & ckpt) {
+            spare_tgt = std::move(ckpt.data_tgt);
+            spare_dft = std::move(ckpt.data_dft);
+        };
+
         // evict checkpoints within min-step of a previous checkpoint, unless they were
         // created by the current task
         int64_t last = -1;
@@ -2255,6 +2263,7 @@ struct server_context_impl {
                 SLT_TRC(slot, "erasing context checkpoint too close to an earlier one (pos_min = %d, pos_max = %d, n_tokens = %" PRId64 ", size = %.3f MiB)\n",
                         it->pos_min, it->pos_max, it->n_tokens, (float) it->size() / 1024 / 1024);
 
+                keep_spare(*it);
                 it = slot.prompt.checkpoints.erase(it);
                 continue;
             }
@@ -2265,11 +2274,12 @@ struct server_context_impl {
 
         while (slot.prompt.checkpoints.size() >= (size_t) params_base.n_ctx_checkpoints) {
             // make room for the new checkpoint, if needed
-            const auto & cur = slot.prompt.checkpoints.front();
+            auto & cur = slot.prompt.checkpoints.front();
 
             SLT_WRN(slot, "erasing old context checkpoint (pos_min = %d, pos_max = %d, n_tokens = %" PRId64 ", size = %.3f MiB)\n",
                     cur.pos_min, cur.pos_max, cur.n_tokens, (float) cur.size() / 1024 / 1024);
 
+            keep_spare(cur);
             slot.prompt.checkpoints.erase(slot.prompt.checkpoints.begin());
         }
 
@@ -2277,6 +2287,9 @@ struct server_context_impl {
 
         cur.id_task = id_task;
 
+        cur.data_tgt = std::move(spare_tgt);
+        cur.data_dft = std::move(spare_dft);
+
         // [TAG_CHECKPOINTS_FIX_POS_MIN]
         // TODO: here we incorrectly deterimne that the saved checkpoint data covers the [pos_min, pos_max] range
         //       this is not true for SWA models: https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/pull/24411#issuecomment-4677983225