diff --git a/examples/osgarchive/osgarchive.cpp b/examples/osgarchive/osgarchive.cpp
index e1b47dd7f..9b33c45fa 100644
--- a/examples/osgarchive/osgarchive.cpp
+++ b/examples/osgarchive/osgarchive.cpp
@@ -17,54 +17,39 @@
 #include <osgDB/ReadFile>
 #include <osgDB/WriteFile>
 
-
-  #include <iostream>
-    #include <streambuf>
-    #include <locale>
-    #include <cstdio>
-
-class proxy_streambuf : public std::streambuf
-{
-   public:
-   
-      proxy_streambuf(std::streambuf* streambuf, unsigned int numChars):
-        _streambuf(streambuf),
-        _numChars(numChars) {}
-   
-      /// Destructor deallocates no buffer space.
-      virtual ~proxy_streambuf()  {}
-
-      std::streambuf* _streambuf;
-      unsigned int _numChars;
-
-    protected:
-
-      virtual int_type uflow ()
-      {
-         if (_numChars==0) return -1;
-         --_numChars;
-         return _streambuf->sbumpc();
-      }
-};
+#include <iostream>
 
 int main( int argc, char **argv )
 {
 /*
-    std::ifstream fin("GNUmakefile");
-    std::istream& ins = fin;
-
-    proxy_streambuf mystreambuf(ins.rdbuf(),10000);
-    ins.rdbuf(&mystreambuf);
     
-    while (!fin.eof())
+    std::fstream fout("test.data",std::ofstream::out | std::ofstream::binary);
+    unsigned int numCharacters = 26;
+    char baseCharacter = 'A';
+    
+    for(unsigned int i=0;i<numCharacters;++i)
     {
-        std::cout.put(fin.get());
+        char c = baseCharacter + i;
+        fout.write(&c,1);
     }
-    std::cout<<"Exiting normally "<<std::endl;
+    fout.close();
     
-    ins.rdbuf(mystreambuf._streambuf);
-*/
+    fout.open("test.data",std::ofstream::out | std::ofstream::in | std::ofstream::binary);
+    
+    char offset = 'a'-'A';
+    unsigned int start_range = 5;
+    unsigned int end_range = 15;
+    
+    fout.seekp(start_range);
+    for(unsigned int i=start_range;i<end_range;++i)
+    {
+        char c = (baseCharacter + i)+offset ;
+        fout.write(&c,1);
+    }
+    
+    fout.close();       
 
+*/
     // use an ArgumentParser object to manage the program arguments.
     osg::ArgumentParser arguments(&argc,argv);
     
diff --git a/include/osgDB/Archive b/include/osgDB/Archive
index 8e734864a..537c9efb0 100644
--- a/include/osgDB/Archive
+++ b/include/osgDB/Archive
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ class OSGDB_EXPORT Archive : public ReaderWriter
         float               _version;
         Status              _status;
         std::ifstream       _input;
-        std::ofstream       _output;
+        std::fstream        _output;
         
         IndexBlockList      _indexBlockList;
         FileNamePositionMap _indexMap;
diff --git a/src/osgDB/Archive.cpp b/src/osgDB/Archive.cpp
index 2295133a9..2609b79b8 100644
--- a/src/osgDB/Archive.cpp
+++ b/src/osgDB/Archive.cpp
@@ -247,27 +247,16 @@ bool Archive::open(const std::string& filename, Status status, unsigned int inde
         if (status==WRITE && open(filename,READ))
         {
             _input.close();
-            
-            struct stat results;
-            pos_type end_of_file = 0;
-            if (stat(filename.c_str(), &results) == 0)
-            {
-                // The size of the file in bytes is in
-                // results.st_size
-                end_of_file = results.st_size;
-            }
-    
             _status = WRITE;
 
-            _output.open(filename.c_str(), std::ios_base::binary | std::ios_base::out);
+            _output.open(filename.c_str(), std::ios_base::binary | std::ios_base::in | std::ios_base::out);
   
             
             
             osg::notify(osg::NOTICE)<<"File position after open = "<<(int)_output.tellp()<<" is_open "<<_output.is_open()<<std::endl;
 
             // place write position at end of file.
-            //_output.seekp(0,std::ios::end);
-            _output.seekp(end_of_file, std::ios::end);
+            _output.seekp(0, std::ios::end);
             
 
             osg::notify(osg::NOTICE)<<"File position after seekp = "<<(int)_output.tellp()<<std::endl;
@@ -497,7 +486,7 @@ ReaderWriter::WriteResult Archive::writeObject(const osg::Object& obj,const std:
     osg::notify(osg::NOTICE)<<"Archive::writeObject(obj, "<<fileName<<")"<<std::endl;
     
     // place write position at end of file.
-    // _output.seekp(0,std::ios::end);
+    _output.seekp(0,std::ios::end);
     
     pos_type position = _output.tellp();