Virtualized Linux box keeps looking for original RAID controller

I am in the process of upgrading a currently working linux-based virtual machine of an appliance device with a newer version of the appliance's software. Once the update is applied however, the VM attempts to load the 3Ware RAID array controller driver that is in the original appliance. When I do a side-by-side comparison of the two VMs booting, right after the "Initializing SCSI [OK]" occurs on the older version of the appliance VM it reads:

/code
   Initializing SCSI                              [OK]
   VMWare Machine Detected
   Adding pcnet32 modules
   MODULE [OK]
   Setting up /data/local_0
   ...
/code

and continues the booting procedure. On the updated VM right after the SCSI initialization on boot-up it shows:

/code
   Initializing SCSI                             [OK]
   loading arcmsr
   Detect devfs or udev  [OK]
   Waiting for Adapter...........Get adapters (0)
-------------------------------------
 Setting rollcall pause
-------------------------------------
tw_get_controller_id_list() found 0 Controller(s)

-------------------------------------
  Updating controller map
-------------------------------------

-------------------------------------
 Checking Database Partition
-------------------------------------

   Local_0 Not Mounted
   ...
/code

The tw_contro.. is part of the driver for the 3Ware array controller driver so I know that that is where it is failing.

I am running the VMs in VirtualBox version 4.3.6 r91406.
The linux versions of the appliance are customized versions of the Mandrake distribution using the 2.6 kernel.

So with the given information above, here is what I am looking for help with - Since I can run the two boxes side-by-side, I can do a comparison between the config files in each version, but I need to know which files I should start with. I've started to compare the files in /etc/init.d but there were very few differences there. When I made the changes to the new VM config files to match the old VM config files, the VM still looked for the 3Ware controller, so I am obviously looking in the wrong place.

Which files and in what location should I be looking for to get this working?