How to install one distro from another?
 

I'm just wondering how I would go about this?

Firstly, my usb modem requires a driver and tcl/tk and gcc to be installed so net install cd wouldn't work as far as I can tell so would I be able to mount the cd (or iso image, see below) from within ubuntu and use chroot to run and install it that way?

Secondly, a while ago when I used Kanotix, I remember a thread on their forum instructing how to boot up and run Kanotix from the actual downloaded iso image without burning it to cd so would it be possible to (for example) download and save all 5 Suse install iso's to a partition then use the method that was used with Kanotix (I can't for the life of me find the thread) to do the install somehow?

I've tried about a dozen distro's over the past 6 months or so and many of them I decided I didn't like and so will never use the disks again and in the case of Suse, I downloaded all 5 cd's and it only used a few MB's off the last 2 cd's and even after adding more things after it still didn't take much off them.
It just seems a waste of cd's that could be used for something else. I know cd's are cheap enough but even still...

One of the reasons I'm asking all this is that I recently accidentally deleted my fedora core partition and another partition containing the backup image. On top of that a load of my cd's, including all 4 fedora cd's suffered fire damage (maybe I should take a hint, someone doesn't want me to use fedora), which means I have to download and burn another 4 iso's to install it again.
I'm thinking my second idea wouldn't be possible using more than one cd but if the first idea is possible I can install Fedora that way.

{EDIT} After much searching, it seems the second method, installing from iso images on the hard drive is indeed possible but I'd still be interested to know whether the first method is possible.