diff --git a/app/models/change.rb b/app/models/change.rb
index e5c1585b..657652c9 100644
--- a/app/models/change.rb
+++ b/app/models/change.rb
@@ -19,12 +19,13 @@ class Change < ActiveRecord::Base
   belongs_to :changeset
   
   validates_presence_of :changeset_id, :action, :path
+  before_save :init_path
   
   def relative_path
     changeset.repository.relative_path(path)
   end
   
-  def before_save
-    path ||= ""
+  def init_path
+    self.path ||= ""
   end
 end
diff --git a/db/migrate/20100705164950_change_changes_path_length_limit.rb b/db/migrate/20100705164950_change_changes_path_length_limit.rb
index 62ba4ec2..62b8644a 100644
--- a/db/migrate/20100705164950_change_changes_path_length_limit.rb
+++ b/db/migrate/20100705164950_change_changes_path_length_limit.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 class ChangeChangesPathLengthLimit < ActiveRecord::Migration
   def self.up
+    # these are two steps to please MySQL 5 on Win32
+    change_column :changes, :path, :text, :default => nil, :null => true
     change_column :changes, :path, :text, :null => false
+    
     change_column :changes, :from_path, :text
   end