I've been scratching my head trying to figure this one out for a few days. My code serializes xml_iarchive & text_iarchive with no problems, however, when I substitute the binary_iarchive I get a "stream error" serialization exception thrown during the make_binary_object call when reading a binary file: template<class Archive> void serialize(Archive & ar, const unsigned int) { ar & BOOST_SERIALIZATION_BASE_OBJECT_NVP(CImageDataBase2D); if (Archive::is_loading::value) { Alloc(); } //ar & boost::serialization::make_nvp("ImageData", boost::serialization::make_binary_object(m_pData, sizeof(T)*m_x*m_y)); const int blobSize=sizeof(T)*m_x*m_y; _ASSERTE(blobSize); ar & boost::serialization::make_nvp("ImageData", boost::serialization::make_binary_object(m_pData, blobSize)); } I've tried to excise the relevant code to a console project, however, it has tentacles and will take a few more days. In the mean time I would appreciate help from anyone that might have a suggestion. I've looked at the code and can find nothing wrong, as I said, ASCII and XML serialization works flawlessly I'm using Visual Studio 8 with Boost 1.33.1.