Question: I’m new to Pentaho, and I need to create a transformation that reads input from Paradox tables. We’re using a really old version of Paradox – It’s 4.5. The tables that I need to load have .db extension. Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks!

Answer: 
Paradox isn't a database that understands SQL, so JDBC drivers won't help much. Your best bet is to convert the Paradox database to a bunch of CSV files and load them into Kettle using the "CSV file input" step. Another option is to open your Paradox database files with Microsoft Access to convert the tables to Access files. Then you can use the "Microsoft Access Input" step.
As long as Paradox has a JDBC driver, The Pentaho tools should be able to connect to the database without any trouble. Just make sure that the jdbc driver is added into the tool(s) you are using.