I ran into the exact same issue and found that the problem was the wire I was using. Some of the USB charging wires out there (typically the really cheap ones) are just that. A charging wire. The contacts used for the data connection to your device are absent so the wire cannot be used for that and you need to make sure that you have a wire capable of data transfer.
I'm not sure if this is a common indicator or not, but the wire I have that lacks this functionality has a split at the end with both Mini-USB and Micro-USB non-removable ends on it to make it more compatible with more phones. I would tend to think that non-brand-name wires that feature this configuration would be less likely to support data transfer, but I can't be sure that it would be the case 100% of the time. It is simply an indicator that the issue may be that.
Once I connected it to the PC with a friends Motorola straight USB to Micro-USB wire the USB Connection settings re-appeared in the notification area and the PC found the phone. I've not seen or been able to find an option in the settings menu labeled USB where you can preemptively select this. Maybe it's my software version or something, but the only way I can ever get to that option is via the notification that shows up only when connected via USB.
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