Yes, I could do a symlink. I may end up restoring the automatic USB mount and stick all the CHMODs and CHOWNs that I need in init.d and link from owncloud to the USB mountpoint.
I'm no expert on FSTAB syntax but it fits with the manual and I've seen some very similar recommendations for what I want to do (and yes, I know the interweb is full of peeps copying each others examples so that's no guarantee).
My theory is that the problem may be my using a drive powered from the Pi. I'm using a high quality power supply and I'm happy that there's bags of volts and amps and stuff to run everything, but, it sounds to me as though the drive powers down at least once during boot which suggests that some of the rails are being tested/played with on boot. My theory is that the drive is actually powered off when FSTAB is run. Just now I booted up with the drive unplugged and got exactly the same result, a folder with all the root folders visible inside. Now where did I put that USB cable with the extra power connector?
edit: crossed with your reply. I shall give that a try too. Thanks
:)EDITED: 24 Sep 2016 21:16 by WILLIAMA