Restore back up strategy for history tables
SQL Server supports piecemeal restores.  From that link:


  Piecemeal restore works with all recovery models, but is more flexible for the full and bulk-logged models than for the simple model.


So you should be OK with the FULL recovery model.

I'd suggest you partition your tables.  The log tables especially should be amenable to partitioning by write date.  Direct the older partions to a filegroup on the slower, cheaper storage.  Then you can restore the important (i.e. recent) portions first and the ancient logs later.