How do you find original Morrowind NIF files? I looked in my meshes and textures but couldn't find anything.

Packed into Morrowind.bsa - you'll need a BSA utility to access them.

You have to extract the BSA. A BSA is an archive that has all sorts of resources morrowind uses. If you go into your data files folder, you should find a file called, "Morrowind.bsa". You will have to download a utility to extract it, such as http://tes.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=12189.

By the way, why do you want the original BSA files. If you're trying to install a mod that overwrites original meshes, it should just be drag n' drop.

Edit: Ninja'd

To retexture one of the original meshes, for instance.

Vanilla nifs are all in the CS CD or the BSA files. Mods usually put nifs in the meshes folder. If you have the CS CD you can browse it to data files>meshes.

I know, I'm just asking for their sake, so they wouldn't go unpacking the bsa, lookin' around, and realizing that they just needed to drag and drop, or redate a bsa.

I want to retexture some of the imperial forts. But when I open it in nifskope it's all gray. How do you edit just the textures?

You need the textures in your texture folder, and you need the textures pathway added in Nifscope options.

Ok I have the texture pathways but I still don't see the texture and the building is still gray. Sorry about being a complete newb.

So, under "Settings->Rendering" you have the Morrowind textures folder showing? And the "Textures" box is checked? And the textures are definitely unpacked from the BSA in to your textures folder?

Yep, except I have exported the NIF files into a folder I created. Is a tutorial on how to do this?

Can you just retexture the building by editing its dds file?

Yeah, but it's always good to see the retextured model in nifskope.

1) Go (in nifskope) to render->settings, and click the rendering tab.
2)Click the add folder, and set the file path to your textures folder. Also, make sure the textures box is checked.
3) Open the model, and see if the textures are showing.

Troubleshooting:
Press F2 to open the block list. Are the textures you want to edit tga or dds? Change the texture paths to use the correct file ending. (dds, tga, bmp, etc.)
If that doesn't work, Also add the data files folder in render->settings (in addition to the textures folder).
Make sure the textures are extracted.

How exactly do you check the folders? I don't see any checkboxes near them.

Add a folder by clicking the add folder button. Then, Right below it, you'll see a message saying, "choose a folder". Directly under the box, you should see the "folder" button. Click it, and it will ask you to browse to your textures folder. When you are done, click the OK button. There should be several checkboxes. "Anti aliasing", "textures", and "shaders". Make sure the "textures" checkbox is checked. Textures should show up on the model.

I have textures checked but I still don't see any textures.

I fixed it. I checked the check for alternatives checkbox and now I can see the textures. Thank you all for the help.

I think I'm going to reinstall morrowind so I can get a completely blank slate to work with.