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Version Chain Validation

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I am running a few backup jobs with the version chain scheme of a Full > Diff > Diff, etc.

Full job took 3 hours. The differential ones are finishing fast, but validation is taking more than 6 hours. Is there any way to speed this up? It defeats the entire purpose of a differntial job if it takes this long, no?

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John,

When ATI validates a chain, it validates all backups of the chain necessary for recovery. This increases the level of confidence that each portion of the chain and the chaining logic itself has been preserved. Therefore, validating takes about the same time as producing the original full and the last differential.

OK, that makes sense... up to a point. What then, is the benefit of diffs? Because if it takes longer to do a diff (because of hte validation time on the full + diff), rather than on just a full... why wouldn't I just do a full backup each time?

Validation may be longer, but backup archive creation could be less. Plus, a differential could require much less disk space than a new full backup.

However, I almost always do full backups because they are safer, more reliable, and simpler. I have the disk space, so I choose to use the best backup option which is a full backup.

John E,

You got a point on the time required for validation. You can see from Tuttle's answer that different users have different approaches.
I do validation so that each full backup is validated at least once. I have enough backup frequency and history that if my incremental backup chain fail, I have at least a validated full backup that is not too old for me to go back to.