I'm coming back to modding after a long time away. I seem to remember before that I re-textured quite a few CS items and I had to dig them off the CS disk, all of which has to be repeated. I'm wondering if it's possible to do this without the disk? Maybe by just moving the data1.cab and data2.cab files into my Morrowind folder, or would it be better to unpack everything to the data folder? I have plenty of disk space. I know swapping disks isn't that much of a hassle (but still a hassle if you're doing it a lot). OTOH, would this make the data folder and sub-folders too unwieldy, if anyone has tried it?

I've got a fresh install. I don't want to muck it up too soon

All the vanilla files are in your BSAs. (the archives which the game reads all vanilla files from)
Which means you can grab them anytime you want, you just need a BSA tool. I prefer http://mw.modhistory.com/download-95-5496

No disc changing required