Use exceptions to watch for and handle I/O errors.

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <cstring>

using namespace std;

struct inventory {
  char item[20];
  int quantity;
  double cost;
};

int main()
{
  int completion_status = 0;

  ofstream fout;

  fout.exceptions(ios::failbit | ios::badbit);

  try {
    fout.open("InvDat.dat", ios::out | ios::binary);
  } catch(ios_base::failure exc) {
    cout << "Cannot open file.\n";
    cout << "String returned by what(): " << exc.what() << endl;
    return 1;
  }
  inventory inv[3];

  strcpy(inv[0].item,"A");
  inv[0].quantity = 1;
  inv[0].cost = 9.9;

  strcpy(inv[1].item, "B");
  inv[1].quantity = 2;
  inv[1].cost = 7.5;

  strcpy(inv[2].item, "C");
  inv[2].quantity = 19;
  inv[2].cost = 2.75;

  try {
    for(int i=0; i<3; i++)
      fout.write((const char *) &inv[i], sizeof(inventory));
  } catch(ios_base::failure exc) {
    cout << exc.what() << endl;
    completion_status = 1;
  }

  try {
    fout.close();
  } catch(ios_base::failure exc) {
    cout << exc.what() << endl;
    completion_status = 1;
  }

  return completion_status;