Final answer:
Solid state hard drives utilize flash memory for storage, which provides faster data access and better performance compared to magnetic hard disk drives.
Step-by-step explanation:
Solid state hard drives (SSDs) use a type of non-volatile memory for storing and retrieving data. Unlike traditional hard disk drives (HDDs) that use magnetic encoding to read and write data, SSDs utilize flash memory. This type of memory allows for faster access to data and better performance over magnetic drives. Therefore, the correct answer to the student's question is C. flash memory.