Now while I believe everything you say is true from my past experiences, but today I replaced the drive in my 722k with one from a 722k that was left behind at job I was on, and upon replacement there was no formatting and the 3 recordings that were on the drive from the donor receiver were there and watchable. They were free preview shorts from HBO and Showtime. but watchable none the less.
Strange
That's really odd. I had to replace a drive twice in my 622, and once in my 722k, and they auto-formatted every time. These were new drives purchased off the web, NOT "Dish" drives swapped between receivers. Maybe a used moved original DISH drive doesn't have to format?